Justin Trudeau’s government says it takes seriously the fact that a senior official has recommended to the financial leaders of federal departments to be careful what they write about contracts awarded to the consulting firm McKinsey.
“Listen, we take this information seriously,” Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said Friday during question period.
On Wednesday, the Comptroller General of Canada, Roch Huppé, confirmed in a parliamentary committee that he had spoken with the heads of the financial departments of the federal apparatus and that he provided them with this advice of caution in what they put in writing.
“What I said, in fact, was that I advised people that we have to remain, as public servants, very factual,” he said when questioned by the Conservative MP and chairman of the committee in Question, Kelly McCauley.
The latter expressed concern that the purpose of such a recommendation was to hide information that could be the subject of a request for disclosure under the Access to Information Act.
“I am greatly concerned as the Information Commissioner has said there is a culture of secrecy and it seems you are converging on that,” he argued.
Mr. Huppé replied “absolutely not” when Mr. McCauley suggested that the purpose was to keep secret information that might otherwise need to be disclosed.
Instead, he said his advice was to avoid “writing personal opinions” in emails, for example.
This explanation probably did not convince the Conservative MP who questioned him since he reiterated his “extreme dissatisfaction” with the remarks made by Mr. Huppé to chief financial officers.
Same story on the side of the Bloc Québécois Jean-Denis Garon, who questioned Minister Fortier on this subject on Friday.
“It is not normal for the Comptroller General of Canada to recommend a culture of silence to the public service and it reveals that the government considers that Parliament and us, the members of Parliament, are nothing more than a threat “, he launched in the Commons.
According to him, the cautionary advice of what is put in writing aims to prevent federal elected officials from accessing documents.
Members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates are investigating contracts awarded by Ottawa to McKinsey since 2011.
Radio-Canada recently reported that spending in this area has skyrocketed since Justin Trudeau’s Liberals came to power in 2015.
According to the most recent data shared by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), $116.8 million has been paid to McKinsey since 2015, under contracts concluded by this department.
In responding to Mr. Garon, Ms. Fortier recalled that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had mandated her to assess the circumstances of the awarding of contracts to McKinsey. She shares that mandate with Supply Minister Helena Jaczek, and the review is due to conclude by June.
“We will continue to do so and the civil servants are the ones responsible for looking at the whole issue of supply. So we will review these projects with the parliamentary committee and its recommendations,” she said.
Mr. Garon believes that Ms. Fortier’s response “leaves it to be understood that the federal government is going through the documents we are asking for with a fine-toothed comb, with its ‘liquid paper’”.