OGGO – Intelligence Dashboard – OGGO Ministerial Appearance on McKinsey contracts - Committee & Appearance Overview – February 15, 2023

About The Committee

Mandate

The Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO) focuses on the estimates process as well as on the effectiveness and proper functioning of government operations.

Studies

The committee mandate primarily focuses on the study of format and content of all estimates documents. The committee also takes part in the study of effectiveness, management, and expenditure plans of central departments, new information and communication technology, cross-departmental mandates, crown corporations and agencies, and programs, expenditures, loan guarantees, contingency funds and private foundations deriving the majority of their funding from the Government of Canada.

An overview of the committee's studies and reports in the 44th Parliament can be found on the Parliament of Canada website. This includes three recent meetings on the outsourcing of contracts.

Appearance Background

Background

The federal government’s contracts with the McKinsey & Company consulting firm have garnered a lot of attention in the media in the past weeks. The Conservative Party of Canada has simultaneously been pushing for a parliamentary probe via House committee on the subject. As Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is one of the departments with the largest value of contracts, the Minister has been invited to appear before the Committee on February 15th in order to elaborate on this matter. At its meeting on January 18th, the OGGO Committee adopted the following motion:

That the Committee undertake a study, pursuant to Standing Orders 108(3)(c)(iii) and (ix), regarding government consulting contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company by the Government of Canada, or any Crown corporation, since January 01, 2011, examining their effectiveness, management and operation, including the value and service received by the government.

As per the motion, the Minister has been invited to deliver a five- minute opening statement and to provide answers to three rounds of questioning from Committee members. The following officials will support the Minister for this appearance:

• Christiane Fox, Deputy Minister
• Arun Thangaraj, Associate Deputy Minister

Environmental Scan

Members of Parliament have been continuing to express concerns with Government of Canada contracts with McKinsey and Company. The Government, including IRCC, has been receiving questions on the topic through various channels including Question Period, Access to Information and Privacy requests, a Committee undertaking (CIMM 16.19), Order Paper Questions (Q-924 and Q-978), and the Committee’s Motion for the Production of Papers.

The below topics have been gaining popularity in the last weeks, appearing in numerous press articles, talk shows, as well as social media:

• Responsible use of public funds
• Transparency and accountability
• Concerns over McKinsey’s influence over IRCC policies
• McKinsey’s questionable ethical position regarding scandals and lawsuits worldwide

Committee Membership

• Kelly McCauley (Edmonton-West)
  

  Chair

• Majid Jowhari (Richmond Hill)
  

  Vice-Chair

• Julie Vignola (Beauport-Limoilou)
  

  Vice-Chair

• Michael Barrett (Leeds-Grenville-Thousands Islands and Rideau Lakes)
  

  Official Opposition Shadow Minister of Ethics and Accountable Government

• Kelly Block (Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek)
  

  Official Opposition Shadow Minister for Public Services and Procurement

• Stephanie Kusie (Calgary Midnapore)
  

  Official Opposition Shadow Minister for Treasury Board

• Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal)
• Parm Bains (Steveston-Richmond East)
• Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni)
• Irek Kusmierczyk (Windsor-Tecumseh)
• Joanne Thompson (St. John’s East)

Conservative Party Of Canada

Related Party Issues

The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) has criticized the Liberal Party for their 30-fold increase of contracts with the American firm, McKinsey & Company. The CPC, under Pierre Poilievre, has called for a probe into the firm’s relationship with the Liberal government.

Recent Party Activity

• Feb 8 – OGGO: Stated that IRCC spent a large amount of money but still has a processing backlog of 1.2 million cases (Kusie).
• Feb 8 – OGGO: Mentioned the intervention (at CIMM) from an individual seeking to bring his family to Canada from Afghanistan. Indicated wanting to ask this question directly to the Minister of IRCC (Kusie).
• Feb 6 – Debates: Highlighted the role of McKinsey & Company in the Century Initiative, and questioned their lack of consideration for including Francophone immigrants in their plan (Paul-Hus).
• Feb 6 –OGGO: Questioned the Minister of PSPC for contracting McKinsey & Company based on their integrity threshold, following the rise of ethical issues from the company (Barret).
• Feb 6 – Twitter: Highlighted a clip from OGGO questioning the Liberals if they were aware of McKinsey & Company’s criminal charges and immoral practices (Barrett).
• Jan 18 – OGGO: Stated that policy decisions made without public interest on Immigration levels have a profound impact on housing prices and health care access. Alluded to a “shadow government” at McKinsey that is influencing immigration levels (Kusie).

OGGO Members

Kelly McCauley
Chair; Chair of SOGG
(Edmonton-East

Topics Of Interest

• Advocacy for veterans
• Reducing costs for taxpayers
• Reducing government spending

Michael Barrett (Leeds-Grenville-Thousands Islands and Rideau Lakes)
Official Opposition Shadow Minister of Ethics and Accountable Government

Kelly Block (Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek)
Official Opposition Shadow Minister for Public Services and Procurement

Stephanie Kusie(Calgary Midnapore)
Official Opposition Shadow Minister for Treasury Board

New Democratic Party

Related Party Issues

The New Democratic Party (NDP) are in support of a review of the Liberal governments contracts with McKinsey & Company. The NDP also criticized the Conservative Party for awarding McKinsey & Company with contracts in the past.

Recent Party Activity

• Feb 8 – OGGO: Proposed a motion to expand the inquiry to other consulting firms in OGGO’s study on Outsourcing of Contracts (Johns).
• Feb 1 – Twitter: Expressed the need to investigate the relationship between the Liberal and Conservative government and consulting firms such as McKinsey, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and others (Johns).
• Jan 18 - OGGO: Stated that a “consultants class” is influencing Government policies. Believes that study should be wider than McKinsey and to look at other companies, such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and others (Green).
• Jan 18 – OGGO: Believes that contracts with such companies as McKinsey help propagate “deep state” conspiracies (Green).
• Jan 11 – Twitter: Questioned the government’s outsourcing of contracts awarded to international companies such as McKinsey & Company (Boulerice).
• Nov 28 – OGGO: Criticized the Liberal government for their increase of outsourcing contracts rather than hiring more public service workers (Johns).
• April 26 – OGGO: Expressed worry of government spending towards expensive consultants like McKinsey & Company (Johns).

OGGO Member

Gord Johns
(Courtenay-Alberni)
Critic Mental Health and Harm Reduction; Critic Public Services and Procurement; Deputy Critic Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

Topics Of Interest

• Environmental protection and climate action
• Adequate housing, economic development, and infrastructure investment
• Indigenous rights and reconciliation
• Return to work and disability management
• Mental health and harm reduction

Bloc Québécois

Related Party Issues

The Bloc Québécois has criticized the Liberal government for their growing contracts with McKinsey & Company, but is hesitant in accusing the current government of wrongdoings.

Recent Party Activity

• Feb 6 – Debates: Inquired if the contracts and deliverables of McKinsey are non-verifiable and non-quantifiable (Bérubé).
• Feb 6 – Debates: Called for making all contracts and documents produced by each department transparent, and to be subject to public inquiry (Brunelle-Duceppe).
• Feb 6 – Debates: Expressed concern regarding the major ethical issues involving the McKinsey firm, and the lack of upholding departmental integrity thresholds when awarding contracts to the firm (Pauzé).
• Feb 2 – Debates: Highlighted McKinsey & Company’s lack of considering the impact of French before recommending increases to immigration (Garon).
• Feb 2 – Twitter: Highlighted the Government signing a contract with McKinsey & Company open until the year 2100 (Vignola).
• Jan 18 – OGGO: Stated that the use of consultants such as McKinsey is “demotivating” the public service while the public is paying both for consultants and a poorly used public service (Vignola).
• Jan 12 – Twitter: Expressed concern regarding the lack of transparency of the McKinsey contracts spending in relation to the survival of the French language in Quebec (Bloc Québécois).
• Jan 9 – Twitter: Inquired on the contracts between Ottawa and McKinsey in relation to the company and the Government’s goals on immigration (Blanchet).

OGGO Member

Julie Vignola
(Beauport-Limoilou)
Vice-Chair; Critic Public Services, Procurement and Government Operations, Tourism

Topics Of Interest

• Quebec interests and protection of the French language
• Against government procurement from Chinese companies
• Quebec independence

Liberal Party Of Canada

Related Party Issues

The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) has been criticized for their use of the American management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has noted that the government will review $66 million worth of contracts awarded to the firm.

Recent Party Activity

• Feb 6 – Debates: Stated they are open to a performance and value-for-money audit by the Auditor General for contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company (Garretsen).
• Feb 6 – OGGO: Inquired on the scope of work that ministers from PSPC and the Treasury Board will take on in their reviews of consultant services and awarding contracts (Jowhari).
• Feb 1 – Debates: Stated that contracts assigned to McKinsey by the public service are being studied on how they were chosen, allocated and fulfilled (Trudeau).
• Jan 18 – OGGO: Open to a study on government contracts with McKinsey. Successfully amended the study motion to study prior to 2015, and include contracts as far back as January 2011 (Housefather).

OGGO Members

Majid Jowhari
(Richmond Hill)
Vice-Chair; Vice-Chair CACN

Parm Bains
(Steveston-Richmond East

Anthony Housefather
(Mount Royal)
Vice-Chair CEUS; Chair CAIL

Irek Kusmierczyk
(Windsor-Tecumseh)

Joanne Thompson
(St. John’s East)