Item - 2024.AU6.1

The Audit Committee recommends that:  

1. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division, to fully utilize the Global Positioning System technology available, to improve parks maintenance crew productivity and to help plan, assign and monitor work by:

a. maximizing the amount of time spent actively working on parks maintenance activities (i.e., grass cutting, washroom cleaning, litter picking, etc.);

b. reducing the time spent on supporting activities where possible (i.e., driving, time spent at the yard, etc.); and

c. minimizing non-productive time (i.e., idle time, unreported stops and breaks, etc.).

2. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division to reinforce clear guidelines and allowances for acceptable stop times, break times, and the valid operational reasons for taking these stops and breaks.

3. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation to:

a. implement monitoring and accountability procedures that include a regular review of a sample of parks maintenance crews’ Daily Activity Sheets together with the Global Positioning System reports to verify that crews accurately record information (including locations, activities, and times) on their Daily Activity Sheets; and

b. review additional Daily Activity Sheets and Global Positioning System reports where issues are noted to determine whether further follow-up is needed to ascertain the accuracy and reliability of work reported on the Daily Activity Sheets.

4. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation in collaboration with the General Manager, Fleet Services to ensure that Global Positioning System devices are installed onto all vehicles used by the Parks Branch.

5. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation to provide additional training and ensure staff are consistently following the Division’s operational policies and procedures and have a clear understanding of their responsibilities for completing the Daily Activity Sheets.

6. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division, to require supervisory staff to conduct thorough reviews of Daily Activity Sheets to ensure crews are properly documenting their daily activities including locations, time in and out for each location, lunch / break times, tasks completed at each location, and travel time.

7. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division, in collaboration with the Chief Technology Officer, to digitalize and modernize processes, adopting technology-enabled tools to:

a. improve tracking, recordkeeping and monitoring of daily maintenance activities; and

b. support the Parks Branch’s ability to collect and analyze data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the parks’ maintenance operations.

8. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division, to strengthen supervision, monitoring and quality assurance processes over park maintenance activities by:

a. establishing clearer guidelines for Supervisors for what should be observed when conducting on-site monitoring / review of completed parks maintenance activities;

b. providing periodic training to Supervisors on guidelines and good practices for conducting on-site monitoring;

c. ensuring on-site monitoring and observation are conducted on a surprise basis at different times of a workday for crews at work locations being reviewed; and

d. summarizing and analyzing results from quality assurance reviews to identify trends or themes that indicate where more guidance, training, and supervision of crews may be warranted.

9. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division, to:

a. review the current service level standards to ensure they are realistic and reasonable, taking into account the budget and resource constraints of the City and benchmarking against service level standards being delivered by other relevant jurisdictions;

b. create and maintain a standardized service level for each park classification;

c. develop key performance indicators to measure the achievement of the existing service level standards; and

d. develop the necessary processes to periodically measure and report service level performance and to identify and address gaps between service level expectations and actual performance.

10. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation to report to Audit Committee, as part of future reports on Audit of Parks Branch Operations - Phase 1, on the plan for cultural change within Parks, Forestry and Recreation.

11. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, to report to the Audit Committee with an update on the review and quality assurance outcomes to the Daily Activity Sheets process, at the:

a. December 9, 2024 Audit Committee Meeting;

b. July 11, 2025 Audit Committee Meeting; and,

c. November 5, 2025 Audit Committee Meeting.

12. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, that improvements be made to the Daily Activity Sheet accountability measures including an identifiable sign off by the person who prepared it, and who reviewed it, and a process to ensure all crew members that it covers are aware of the contents.

13. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, to report to the Service Excellence Committee with an update on the review of service standards and the development of key performance measures, along with their linkage to the 311 Customer Experience system.

14. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, to include vehicle odometer readings as part of the Daily Activity Sheets until such time the full Global Positioning System automation is achieved.

Tara Anderson, Auditor General, and Ina Chan, Deputy Auditor General, gave a presentation on Audit of Parks Branch Operations - Phase 1: Improving Oversight of Day-to-Day Maintenance Helps to Ensure City Parks are Beautiful, Clean and Safe.

Howie Dayton, General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, gave a presentation on Audit of Parks Branch Operations - Phase 1: Improving Oversight of Day-to-Day Maintenance Helps to Ensure City Parks are Beautiful, Clean and Safe.

The Audit Committee:

1. Requested the Auditor General to report directly to the November 13, 14 and 15, 2024 meeting of City Council with a breakdown of the Audit of Parks Branch Operations - Phase 1 findings by City Ward.

2. Requested the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation to report directly to the November 13, 14 and 15 meeting of City Council and provide a current list of 1500 parks broken down by zone and by classification.

3. Requested the Auditor General to report directly to the November 13, 14 and 15 meeting of City Council on the specific parks that were analyzed in the Audit of Parks Branch Operations - Phase 1, and identify those parks by zone and classification.

The Auditor General’s 2023 Work Plan included an operational review of how the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division manages and maintains over 1,500 parks in the City of Toronto. This report presents the first phase of the operational review, which focuses on the efficiency of daily park maintenance activities, compliance with the established service level standards, and identifying opportunities for improving how the Parks Branch performs day-to-day maintenance to help keep parks beautiful, clean, and safe.

The Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division’s mission is to improve the quality of life of Toronto’s diverse communities by providing safe, beautiful parks, a healthy, expanding urban forest, and high quality, community-focused recreational experiences. The Parks Branch is responsible for on-going care and maintenance of City-operated parks, including various amenities found in each park.

Our audit identifies opportunities for the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division to improve parks crew productivity, supervision of maintenance activities and measuring the achievement of service level standards by:

a. Leveraging technology and improving scheduling, tracking, and monitoring processes.

b. Strengthening monitoring and on-site supervision of daily maintenance activities.

c. Setting performance expectations and measuring outcomes.