Toronto’s transit agency is facing questions over its use of communications-related consultants as ridership stutters, costs mount and leaders are forced to draw from rainy-day funds.
Data obtained by Global News shows the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is currently committed to communications and marketing consulting contracts worth roughly $3.5 million.
According to figures accessed using freedom of information laws, the TTC categorizes five contracts as related to communications, crisis management, social media, marketing, branding and reputation management.
The agreements run for various lengths of time, but all were active in 2025.
The contracts the TTC had active in 2025, which it classed under those terms, were:
- Media monitoring: $480,500 (1.5-year term, option to extend up to three)
- Contingency planning ahead of potential strike: $113,000 (two years)
- Marketing services: $2,700,000 (three years)
- Engagement on annual service plan: $121,825 (one year)
- Racial equity analysis: $39,714 (five months)
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A spokesperson for the TTC said many of the contracts were for plans that would otherwise divert agency resources.
“Some of these are long-term service contracts to support the TTC for larger projects that would require significant staff resources if managed entirely by the TTC,” they said in a written statement.
Carson Binda, from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the agency should have enough in-house talent to avoid relying on external providers.
“Every single dollar that the TTC wastes on these highly-paid communications consultants and marketing strategies is money that’s not going toward core services,” he told Global News.
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“Maybe the TTC wouldn’t have such a bad PR problem if they were investing in those core services instead of paying these big, eye-watering communications consulting fees.”
Revelations about the contracts come in a year where the TTC saw ridership fall, and fares stayed frozen, forcing the agency to dip into its reserves to maintain service.
As part of its 2026 budget submission, the TTC plans to withdraw $35 million from its rainy-day fund to “help offset reduced passenger revenues and maintain fare affordability.”
A spokesperson for TTC said the organization always worked to be “a responsible steward of the public purse” in its approach to signing contracts.
“As well, we are reviewing all communications-related spending (internal and external) to ensure we are focusing on the TTC’s key priorities like safety, reliability and performance,” they wrote.
The agency said it partnered with other bodies, like the City of Toronto, to sign contracts at more competitive prices, citing the media monitoring contract as one example.
They said the $2.7 million contract for marketing and creative services was an upper limit of the three-year deal.
For 2025, for example, the spokesperson said the TTC spent $650,000 on campaigns including streetcar safety, promoting the SafeTTC App and “brand strategy.”
The TTC said all its contracts — apart from the $2.7-million marketing agreement — were one-time costs “for a specific purpose.”
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