The City of Toronto overspent by $13.2 million over two years on emergency hotel shelters, according to a fiscal audit by the city’s auditor general.
Money intended for housing support instead went to pay a host of hotel fees, the auditor general says, including one earmarked for tourism. That’s despite the fact the contracts preclude such fees.
In two years, $5.4 million was spent on hotel room vacancy fees, $5.3 million was spent on facility surcharges on meal invoices, and $2.4 million came out of a voluntary three per cent tax that the Greater Toronto Hotel Association uses to promote tourism.
