Staples Canada getting $1.75M to retrofit some ServiceOntario outlets, minister continues to dodge questions

The Ford government continues to dodge questions about where the cost-savings are coming from by moving some ServiceOntario outlets into Staples Canada locations.

Officials said using Staples locations will lead to an estimated $900,000 in savings over three years, mostly due to not paying leasing costs.

Todd McCarthy, Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery, has refused to release the business case for the plan and now claims Staples is getting $1.75 million for retrofit costs.

McCarthy claimed that the cost-savings would be realized because the government won’t be paying for leases or retrofits, however the government doesn’t pay any of those costs to the independent operators being shut down.

The minister was asked why the province did not put this plan to open tender so that it could get the best deal for the taxpayers.

“This met all the procurement requirements in the Ontario public sector service model,” McCarthy said. “This is about cost-savings,” he said.

The Liberals requested the province’s Financial Accountability Office “provide analysis of the government’s recent decision to award contracts without a competitive bidding process to Staples and Walmart, to privatize parts of Service Ontario.”

“The government has not been clear on the value to the Ontario taxpayer. In fact, their story keeps shifting. First, they said this outsourcing would save a million dollars; then they said that it would save a million dollars over three years, and most recently, that it would save $900,000 over three years,” Don Valley West MPP Stephanie Bowman wrote in a letter addressed to Financial Accountability Officer, Jeffrey Novak.

The Green Party and the NDP are calling on the Ford government to release the business case for the Staples deal.

Tom Rakocevic, NDP critic for Consumer Protection, said Monday’s press conference with McCarthy raised more questions than it answered.

“What savings are they even talking about? Why didn’t they open this for competitive bidding? … They could clear all of this up by releasing the business case, if they have one, and making the contracts public,” he told reporters.

“The Conservative government needs to come clean about why they are using taxpayer dollars to help Staples and Walmart with their bottom lines.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the government needs to provide transparency on what it calls a “dubious Staples deal.”

“They’re pulling cost savings out of thin air and refusing to back them up with an actual business case,” he said in a release.

Following Monday’s press conference, CityNews pressed McCarthy for answers on how Staples ended up with a sole-source deal to host some ServiceOntario locations but the minister was unable to say where the purported cost-savings are coming from, or why the deal was sole-sourced. He was then physically removed by his staff. Watch the video below.

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On Monday, the Ford government announced the six ServiceOntario outlets that will move into the new Staples Canada locations starting on Thursday:

• Oakville, 2460 Winston Churchill Blvd.
• Newmarket, 17810 Yonge St.
• Toronto (Scarborough), 1980 Eglinton Ave. E.
• Strathroy, 425 Caradoc St. S.
• Tillsonburg, Tillsonburg Town Centre, 200 Broadway St.
• Welland, Seaway Mall, 800 Niagara St.

McCarthy said the locations will offer more convenience with extended hours on evenings and Saturdays.

Three others are set to open later this year:

• Toronto (Leaside), 945 Eglinton Ave. E., Toronto
• Keswick, 24018 Woodbine Ave., Unit A-02
• Hamilton South, 103-2130 Rymal Rd. E.

As CityNews first reported, some privately run ServiceOntario outlets are being shut down with little notice and moved into Staples and Walmart locations as part of a sole-sourced taxpayer-funded deal.

In an interview with Rogers TV Durham last week, McCarthy dodged questions as to how much it is costing taxpayers to retrofit the ServiceOntario outlets across the province.

He said Staples Canada got a three-year sole-sourced deal to open ServiceOntario locations inside some of its stores after part of a lengthy consultation process that involved “dozens” of potential retail partners, adding it is expanding a model that has been in existence for decades.

As contracts with the 134 remaining privately operated ServiceOntario locations approach expiry, the government will be reviewing them to determine if they should continue to operate in the same way, or if they should be closed and moved into retail outlets and other locations.

ServiceOntario outlets are currently at Canadian Tire, IDA, and Home Hardware locations.

The province says the partnership with Staples is “one part of ServiceOntario’s innovative alternative service delivery model designed to meet the unique needs of local communities.”

The plan is part of a broader push by the government to consider new locations for all of the stand-alone, privately run operations.

It is one type of pilot project out of six models the government has in the works.

Three pilot locations opened in municipal government offices last year, as well as one location with an Employment Ontario community hub, and a mobile location in the Robinson-Huron treaty area. Another part of the pilot project is partnering with First Nations, with one location that opened in northern Ontario in 2022.

The sixth type of pilot project is to put ServiceOntario outlets in public libraries, but the locations haven’t been disclosed yet.

With files from John Marchesan and The Canadian Press