Opposition MPs Request Committee Meeting to Examine McKinsey Contracts

Pedestrians cross Elgin Street in view of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Opposition MPs are requesting a House of Commons committee meeting to examine the large increase in government contracts being awarded to the U.S. consulting firm McKinsey since the Trudeau Liberals took power in 2015.

“In the past seven years, McKinsey & Company has garnered $66 million in federal contracts, representing a 30-fold increase from the previous government according to media reporting,” reads a letter signed by all the opposition members on the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates and sent on Jan. 13 to Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, the committee’s chair.

The $66 million figure noted in the letter follows reporting by CBC on Jan. 4 revealing the high value of contracts being awarded to McKinsey for multiple federal departments.

“The contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company consulting firm over the past seven years demand this committee’s immediate attention,” the letter said.

It was signed by Conservative MPs Stephanie Kusie, Kelly Block, and Michael Barrett, along with Bloc Québécois MP Julie Vignola and NDP MP Gord Johns.

The five signatures meet the threshold needed to require the committee’s chair to call a meeting within five calendar days to consider the MPs’ request, according to House rules.

‘Change the Rules’

The meeting request comes about a week after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet announced they will push for the government to reveal details of the contracts awarded to McKinsey.

“We need to know what this money was for, what influence McKinsey has had in our government,” Poilievre said during a press conference on Jan. 10.

“Our job is to make sure that we know as much as possible,” Blanchet said. “Why has the Canadian government ceded its prerogatives by issuing contracts to a private foreign company?”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that two of his ministers have been assigned to examine the increase of contracts for McKinsey.

“Public officials have always reached out to external companies to help them modernize government operations, but we’ll do follow-up to make sure that things were done properly,” Trudeau said on Jan. 11 in Mexico City.

“If we need to change the rules, we will do so,” he added.

Minister of Public Services and Procurement Helena Jaczek and Treasury Board President Mona Fortier have been assigned to following up on the McKinsey contracts.

Noé Chartier contributed to this report.