The federal Liberals gave McKinsey and Company $104.6 million from 24 contracts since 2015, and Garnett Genuis wants to know what happened to the money..“It's a major scandal we're seeing with McKinsey, over $100 million in contracts going to this Liberal friendly firm and we need to get to the bottom of it,” Genuis, the MP for Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan and Conservative international development critic, said in an interview with Western Standard,.“They appear to have had a lot of influence on policy direction. It's not just the money, but also the influence on issues through their conduct around the world. McKinsey has worked with Chinese state-owned enterprises, including one building militarized islands in the South China Sea, with Saudi Arabia in a way that has contributed to repression. They helped Purdue pharma advise it on how to sell more opioids, which fueled the opioid crisis. The ethical issues, the influence issues, all of these things make the McKinsey scandal a very important story.”.A public research project conducted by the Carleton University School of Public Policy and Administration showed McKinsey received $8.8 million last year for services to National Defense, $7.4 million for an information technology contract from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, plus $789,303 for a contract for Employment and Social Development Canada. In recent years, the company has also done contract work for Canada Border Services Agency; Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Public Services and Procurement Canada; and Veterans Affairs Canada..“The issue with McKinsey is that we've seen their willingness to work for almost anyone, and seemingly work on opposite sides of the same issue. They were advising Canada on increasing immigration targets, while they were also working with the Trump administration on providing proposals for implementing their immigration policies. They're doing work for national defense in western countries, while they're also doing work for Russian and Chinese state-affiliated companies. So we see them working for all kinds of different people, including ones that are severely suspect.”.Last week Dominic Barton testified to the standing committee examining federal contracts. Barton was a currency analyst for N M Rothschild and Sons in London and later worked for McKinsey in its Toronto office. He was global managing director for McKinsey from 2009 to 2018. In 2017, he chaired the Liberals’ Advisory Council on Economic Growth, and in 2019, he became Canada’s ambassador to China..“Dominic Barton says they're not friends and the prime minister and the deputy prime minister have both talked about a close relationship. So there's clearly a contradiction there, Genuis said..“At the end of the day, this is a company that has had a very close relationship with the Liberals, and that has profited from that relationship.”.Thanks to a Conservative motion, the Auditor General will examine the McKinsey contracts. However, the $17.1 million paid to McKinsey in 2021-22 ranks 191 among $22.2 billion in contracts when those to defense are included. Brookefield Global Integrated Solutions was the largest recipient at $1.1 billion..“Conservatives are supportive of looking into all of the Liberal government approaches to contracting and outsourcing. There's a lot to look into with regard to the track record of this government,” Genuis said..“We do need to be able to evaluate whether value was produced for these contracts. And that means that there needs to be some outside oversight.”.That’s not the only spending that concerns Genuis. Liberal government hired 8,570 new federal employees in 2021-22 and swelled the civil service by more than 30% since taking power..“It's highly suspect that the government is on the one hand dramatically increasing the size of the public service, while at the same time they're spending more and more money on outside consultants,” Genuis said..“The Liberals are spending money like it's going out of fashion, and we need to get spending under control. A lot of this comes down to the tendencies and habits of this government. They have shown capricious disregard for ethics rules and appropriate norms of conduct. And we need a new government at the end of the day.”
