Item scheduled for City Council July 28. Needs scrutiny, should not be rushed because of the pandemic.

Issues include negotiation of financial terms + digital identity mgmt. Long-term implications. Economic localism is *way* down on the list of trouble: https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2020/07/24/toronto-tech-firms-fume-at-proposed-sole-sourced-deal-between-city-and-us-firm.html

Put another way: if this was a Toronto firm selected to sole-source, the process issues and the content issues would still be major concerns. This framing, that it should be done by a Toronto company, misses the major and higher priority points.

When I see the City of Toronto taking its Digital Infrastructure Plan seriously I'll feel more confident in staff decisions. Right now our policy is to be reactive to the market - not a good way to engage in negotiation, on the back foot and defensive.

This is not hard. It's a case of actions speaking louder than words. The actions say we don't care enough about our digital infrastructure to design it on our own and now our systems are all so bad that whoever shows up with a product will do.