Mayor Denis Coderre has spent nearly $440,000 on outside help from drafting the speeches he gave since he took office at the end of 2013, according to City Hall.
In an email to Radio-Canada, City Hall spokesperson Gonzalo Nunez noted the expense was justified because of the sheer number of activities the mayor took part in over the course of his term, including those at national and international events.
He also told the network that while much of work on his speeches is done in-house, the city decided to outsource some of the excess work.
Valerie Plante, Coderre's challenger in the Nov. 5 election, pledges to have all of her speech work done in-house, and points out there's no reason the mayor needs to spend more money on speeches than the likes of Premier Philippe Couillard and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Plante, representing the Projet Montreal party, suggests this kind of money spent on speeches could be spent somewhere else.