The 2025 Operating Budget request of $8.651 million is a $0.361 million (or 4.3 per cent) increase from the Approved Adjusted 2024 Operating Budget for the Auditor General’s Office. The Office is lean relative to the size and complexity of Toronto’s government. The Office budget as a percentage of the municipal operating budget (0.05% of the City’s 2024 budget), is also among the lowest of major municipalities across Canada, as well as those of a number of municipalities in the United States.
The budget pressure largely arises from:
- an increase in salaries and benefits of $0.095 million, mainly due to ongoing budget pressures for normal performance pay increases consistent with the City’s Non-Union Pay For Performance Program and position conversions;
- partially offset by a net decrease of $0.010 million in non-salary expenditures resulting from $0.031 million in savings identified through a line-by-line review offset by an increase of $0.021 million for inflationary adjustments;
- an enhancement request of $0.125 million for professional services for experts, specialists and contracted audit professionals and the corresponding increase to the number of planned IT and cybersecurity audits as well as follow-up of prior cybersecurity findings and recommendations at the City and certain City agencies and corporations; and,
- a one-time enhancement request of $0.150 million for professional services for experts, specialists and/or contracted forensic investigators to address the request made by City Council at its meeting on November 13, 2024, for the Auditor General to conduct a further forensic investigation of the procurement of the PayIt Platform.1
Any cost-of-living salary adjustments to be applied in 2025 are not reflected as per the Financial Planning Division’s 2025 operating budget guidelines. The Financial Planning Division budgets for these costs City-wide as part of Non-Program expenditures and a request to transfer the allocation to the Auditor General’s Office budget will typically be made in-year.