Toronto parks audit finds productivity concerns, staff logs inaccurate compared to GPS

A damning report by the auditor general for Toronto is calling for stronger management and increased usage of GPS technology to address concerns about lost productivity in the City’s parks branch.

The first of two reports, which is going to the audit committee on Tuesday, looked at how more than 1,500 parks and greenspaces are maintained by the parks, forestry and recreation division.

“During this audit, we observed that the parks branch does not regularly monitor whether its service level standards are achieved,” the report said in part.

“We identified that service level standards were not consistently met for some parks in the sample we selected.”

It noted audit staff were “unable to readily determine how consistently minimum service levels were met or exceeded” because of the “limitations in the quality and reliability of information captured” in paper-based records.

The report also said there were “discrepancies” between GPS records and maintenance activity logs completed by “mobile” City of Toronto workers.

“Daily logs were not always properly completed. Park locations and working times were not always accurately reported and did not always match GPS records,” it said.

In a review of 85 daily logs with available GPS data, the auditor general’s staff looked at an average eight-hour day.

The staff logs showed crews performing work maintenance for four hours and five minutes, stopping at yards and waste disposal sites for an hour and 12 minutes, and two hours and 43 minutes when no activity was reported and the audit staff “assume driving time.”

However, a look at GPS records painted a different picture in the report. It showed vehicles used for park maintenance purposes were stopped on average for two hours and 36 minutes, stopped at yards and waste disposal sites for an hour and seven minutes, driving time accounted for two hours and two minutes while vehicles were parked at plazas and non-park locations for 46 minutes and stopped at City locations (not noted on logs and unknown if it’s for productive purposes) for an hour and 29 minutes.

The audit showed for 39 of the 85 logs, crews didn’t stop at one or more of the parks listed. When it comes to working times, 64 out of 85 logs contained information that was “not accurate.”

It also showed 41 per cent of the reviewed instances found vehicles stopped at non-work locations, combined with lunches and breaks at other Toronto parks locations, were longer than the 60 minutes allowed for lunches and breaks.

The auditor general’s office made several recommendations to Toronto councillors that centred around using technology to improve scheduling and tracking, boosting supervision of employees, establishing performance expectations, and reviewing service standards.

“Addressing the recommendations in this report will enable the parks branch to improve crew productivity and the effectiveness and efficiency of its procedures and processes for conducting parks maintenance activities,” the report to the audit committee said.

The audit report said divisional staff agreed with the recommendations put forward, adding many can be put in place throughout 2025.

City parks and ravines are 13 per cent of all land in Toronto. The municipality spends approximately $190 million on the parks branch with $57.5 million of that dedicated to summer park maintenance. There are around 700 permanent and temporary workers in the winter and more than 1,300 in the spring and summer.

Parks staff are responsible for picking up garbage, turf maintenance, cleaning washrooms, removing graffiti, performing playground inspections and general asset maintenance.