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Thorold City Hall struggling to find (and retain) city planners

50% of positions within the Planning Division are currently vacant
thorold-city-hall
Thorold City Hall.

Thorold City Hall just can’t seem to hire or retain city planners. That’s why they're once again looking to outsource planning applications to a third party.

As ThoroldToday reported last year, the city’s planning department is hemorrhaging employees again. Even though the city has been trying to replace the employees it lost, they’ve had no luck so far.

“The City of Thorold’s Planning Division currently has several vacant positions, equal to 50% of the division, which have proven to be difficult to fill with qualified and experienced individuals,” writes City Hall, in a new report.

With planning applications stacking up, the city has decided to look for help elsewhere.

“In efforts to mitigate interruptions to service delivery, it is recommended that the City of Thorold temporarily out-source some municipal planning services, as determined by the Director of Development Services or designate, to a professional planning consultant until such time as staffing levels are achieved within the Planning Division to maintain service delivery,” reads the report.

Back in 2022, the city faced similar obstacles, so at the time, they contracted MHBC Planning to help out. By early 2024, it seemed that the city had finally retained enough staff and they were getting ready to cut ties with MHBC.

“Now we have a full team of qualified people with us,” Thorold CAO Manoj Dilwaria told ThoroldToday, on January 10, 2024. “In terms of MHBC, the workload that we have been giving to them has gone down considerably. We have still one or two positions I think still need to be filled. Of course, then it will all be managed internally.”

Unfortunately, after another string of high-profile exits, the city's planning department is once again on the back foot.

"The Planning Division continues to face challenges as staff struggle to maintain a healthy work/life balance due to the high demands of development coupled with frequent legislative changes," City Hall staff told ThoroldToday back in October.

One thing's for certain: City Hall is adamant that the outsourcing of the planning work will not affect the taxpayer. 

“The cost of external planning consultants is expected to be funded through development application fees and savings realized by vacant positions,” writes City Hall. “Should the costs of these services begin to reach a point that may impact the budget, a subsequent report will be brought before council for consideration.”

The matter is to be discussed during tonight’s city council meeting.


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Bernard Lansbergen

About the Author: Bernard Lansbergen

Bernard was born and raised in Belgium but moved to Canada in 2012 and has lived in Niagara since 2020. Bernard loves telling people’s stories and wants to get to know those that make Thorold into the great place it is.
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