(Ottawa) The Conservative Party, the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party want to know what the tens of millions of dollars paid by the Liberal government to the consulting firm McKinsey were used for. They are forcing the holding of an inquiry by a parliamentary committee, but are refraining for the moment from going so far as to request an independent public inquiry.
“The motion that we are going to table will oblige the government to make public all the documents, all the results of the work [accompli], all the money involved, all the conversations, all the text messages, the emails, ”said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in a press briefing on Tuesday. “Depending on what we learn, maybe it will be necessary to have further investigations to get to the truth,” he added.
The McKinsey firm again made headlines last week when The Canadian Press and Radio-Canada revealed that Justin Trudeau’s government has used the services of this consulting firm on numerous occasions.
The sum amounts to 84 million, according to a document produced by the government in response to an order paper question from the Conservative MP for British Columbia, Tako Van Popta. The Departments of National Defense and Immigration are the ones that have made frequent use of it. Some of these contracts would have been awarded without a call for tenders.
The three main opposition parties want to force the government to reveal all of the “unredacted” contracts, specified Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet, to the standing committee on government operations and budget estimates.
The sums that have been disbursed constitute a “waste” of public funds, according to Mr. Poilievre as the Liberals have multiplied deficits since they came to power in 2015. “A multinational which is the subject of a criminal investigation in France and which had to pay penalties for his role in the opioid crisis that killed many in North America,” he said.
French justice opened an investigation a few months ago into McKinsey’s role in President Emmanuel Macron’s election campaigns. The firm also had to pay nearly $600 million to 47 US states for helping pharmaceutical companies boost the sale of opioids.
New Democrat MP Matthew Greene, however, recalled that the Conservatives themselves had awarded 2.2 million contracts to this consulting firm under Stephen Harper’s government. “And we’ve already starred in this movie,” he noted in a written statement. Billionaires, not you, benefit when the Conservatives are in power, then other billionaires, not you, benefit when the Liberals are in power. »
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Pierre Poilievre
“Why did the Government of Canada cede its prerogatives by contract to a foreign private company?, asked Yves-François Blanchet surrounded by six of his deputies. How does this serve the common good? »
In addition to the issues of costs, contract awards and transparency, the use of McKinsey also raises the issue of increasing immigration thresholds. The Bloc leader is concerned about the links between the pressure group Century Initiative, which advocates public policies to increase the Canadian population to 100 million people by 2100, and the consulting firm. Its co-founder is Dominic Barton, who was McKinsey’s big boss until 2018. A year later, he was named Canada’s ambassador to China.
The McKinsey firm defended itself in a statement issued in the evening. “Our work with the Canadian government is entirely non-partisan and focuses on fundamental management issues, such as digitization and improving operations,” she says. Despite what we may have read or heard recently in the media, our firm makes no recommendations on immigration policies or on any other subject whatsoever. »
In the office of the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Helena Jaczek, we take the concerns of the opposition parties seriously. “We continue to maintain the highest standards of openness, transparency and fiscal responsibility,” said its press officer, Olivier Pilon by email. He assured that the minister would work with the committee if the motion of the opposition parties is adopted.
With The Canadian Press