Procurement Minister Helena Jaczek’s office is pledging to work with a parliamentary committee if it adopts a motion, the Conservative leader says, demanding an inquiry into reports of contracts awarded to a consulting firm is coming soon Is McKinsey,
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that Jaczek and Treasury Board President Mona Fortier have been tasked with looking into contracts that Radio-Canada reports have increased under the Liberal government. Global News has not independently verified this report.
“We will follow-up to make sure it was done correctly and to see if we need to modify or change the rules,” Trudeau said, speaking in French.
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conservative leader Pierre Poilievre expressed his concern about the contracts on Tuesday when he told reporters that his party intends to ask the House of Commons government’s Operations and Estimates Committee to undertake a study of the hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly awarded to the firm .
call comes As reported by Radio-Canada that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government spent 30 times as much on contracts with the consulting firm as it did McKinsey under his predecessor, Stephen Harper.
“We will always ensure that the advice received helps the government continue to work for Canadians,” read a statement from Jaczek’s office.
“We have not received a formal request from the Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, but (we) will work with the committee if a resolution is adopted on the matter.”
The statement added that JackJac is “taking these concerns very seriously.”
“We continue to uphold the highest standards of openness, transparency and financial responsibility,” his office said.
According to the Radio-Canada reporting cited by Poilievre, Harper’s government awarded contracts worth $2.2 million to McKinsey during its nine years in power. However, since coming to office in 2015, Trudeau’s government reportedly awarded $66 million in contracts to the firm.
Of this, more than $24 million is related to contracts with the Department of Immigration, the report said.
“We want to know what all this money was for,” Poilevre said, speaking on Tuesday.
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Poilievre also expressed concern about the firm’s potential influence, and Trudeau’s decision to appoint former McKinsey director Dominic Barton as his ambassador to China for two years ending in 2021. Of.
The Conservative leader said he wanted to know more about the company’s “outsized influence” on “the operation of our government, in our democracy”.
However, for such a study to be launched, Conservative MPs would have to submit a formal proposal to the Government Steering Committee. Then, the request must pass a vote.
With five Liberals and five opposition members sitting on the committee, the Tories can win that vote only if they have the support of all opposition MPs – as well as the Conservative chair.
Poilievre said the motion would also seek documents about McKinsey contracts.
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