‘No plans to change’: Toronto spent $35M on private security contracts this year

Data shared with Global News by the city shows Toronto is currently tied into eight separate private security contracts, predominantly for services relating to homelessness.

The City of Toronto is facing questions about the cost of guards it deploys at locations like homeless shelters and encampments, with various private security companies signed up to contracts worth a total of roughly $109 million.

Data shared with Global News by the city shows Toronto is currently tied into eight separate private security contracts, predominantly for services relating to homelessness.

Three contracts for security at shelter respite centres are worth $44.8 million in total, while another contract for shelter core sites runs to $15 million. There’s also an agreement with Garda Canada Security Corporation to provide “encampment support” at $11.9 million.

Separately, the city has a $4.8 million contract for security at the St Lawrence Market Complex, $14.8 million for Union Station and $18.2 for a contract simply described as private security guards at “city-wide locations.”

Those contracts are worth $109 million in total, if the city exercises its options to run them to their maximum length. They were signed in 2024 and 2023.

So far this year, across all of those agreements, city hall has shelled out $35.2 million.

A spokesperson for Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said private security works alongside in-house teams to ensure there is 24/7 monitoring at 1,500 city facilities.

At encampments, the spokesperson said teams are deployed to monitor the sites and notify outreach teams, as well as identify safety risks.