The Conservative Party of Canada called for an investigation by the auditor general regarding the Liberal Party’s contracts with the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
Since Trudeau became the Prime Minister of Canada in 2015, the Liberals have issued over $100 million in consulting contracts to the New York-based firm. This total is over 50 times what the Harper government gave to McKinsey between 2006 – 2015.
“So far, the Liberals have disclosed at least $120 million in contracts to McKinsey, an enormous amount of money that keeps rising,” said Conservative MP Garnett Genius.
“Yet despite this huge price tag, media reports have quoted senior public servants who say they have no idea what McKinsey did in return for these contracts,” he added.
Last week, Genius grilled Dominic Barton during a standing committee on government operations and estimates.
Barton was McKinsey’s Global Managing Director from 2009 to 2018. Subsequently, Trudeau appointed Barton as Canada’s Global Ambassador to China from 2019 to 2021.
Barton said he did not know of his former firm’s involvement with Purdue Pharma, which has since pleaded guilty over OxyContin marketing charges.
“These were people doing billions of dollars in business that caused the opioid crisis – that invented OxyContin – they were your client for fifteen years, and you had no idea they were your client?”
Genius also alleged that McKinsey’s dealings with China are sketchy and should be looked into.
Additionally, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has speculated that McKinsey received so many contracts from the Liberals because Barton is a “personal friend” of Trudeau’s.
Last week, Barton denied this claim.
