Overview: Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates—Study on Federal Government Consulting Contracts Awarded to McKinsey & Company (June 5, 2023)
Scenario note
Background
On , the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (the committee) adopted a motion to undertake a study on contracts awarded since to McKinsey & Company. To date, there have been 10 meetings on this study:
- January 30: meeting with individuals and PIPSC
- February 1: meeting with Dominic Barton
- February 6: meeting with PSPC and the Canada Infrastructure Bank
- February 8: meeting with the President of the Treasury Board and the Business Development Bank of Canada
- February 13: meeting with academics and the Procurement Ombudsman
- February 15: meeting with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration
- March 6: meeting with the Department of Public Safety and the CBSA
- March 20: meeting with the Department of National Defence
- March 27: meeting with the Union of National Defence Employees
- March 29: meeting with Robert Palter, a senior partner of McKinsey
On Monday, , the committee adopted the following motion:
That the committee:
a) Invite the deputy heads from the following entities in relation to the redactions and improper translation of documents requested by the committee on :
- Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
- Business Development Bank of Canada
- Canada Border Services Agency
- Canada Development Investment Corporation
- Canada Post
- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
- Department of Finance Canada
- Employment and Social Development Canada
- Export Development Canada
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
- Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
- National Defence
- Natural Resources Canada
- Office of the Veterans Ombud (Veterans Affairs Canada)
- Privy Council Office
- Public Sector Pension Investment Board
- TransMountain Corporation
b) Invite the Office of the Law Clerk to brief the committee, in public, on the extent of the committee's powers to call for documents;
c) Instruct the Chair to send a letter to each of the entities listed in section a) of this motion to inform them that the committee is currently considering referring this issue to the House of Commons as a possible breach of parliamentary privilege.
General information
Date:
Time: 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Location: Room 035-B, West Block
The meeting will be held in a hybrid format. Witnesses are encouraged to appear in-person. Officials will be appearing on a panel.
Witnesses
Business Development Bank of Canada
Isabelle Hudon, President and Chief Executive Officer (by videoconference)
Canada Border Services Agency
Erin O'Gorman, President
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
Michel Leduc, Senior Managing Director and Global Head, Public Affairs & Communications
Canada Post Corporation
Rindala El-Hage, Interim Vice-President, Finance and Controller (by videoconference)
Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Christiane Fox, Deputy Minister
Department of National Defence
Bill Matthews, Deputy Minister
Department of Natural Resources
Mollie Johnson, Acting Deputy Minister
Export Development Canada
Mairead Lavery, President and Chief Executive Officer
Privy Council Office
Matthew Shea, Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Ministerial Services and Corporate Affairs and Chief Financial Officer
Opening remarks
At the beginning of the meeting, the Chair will invite officials to deliver opening remarks. These should last approximately five minutes and will be followed by questions from committee members.
Note Only PCO, Matthew Shea, will deliver opening remarks.
Rounds of questions
At the Chair's discretion, questions from committee members will proceed as follows:
- First round: 6 minutes for each party in the following order: CPC, LPC, BQ, NDP
- For the second and subsequent rounds: CPC, 5 minutes; LPC, 5 minutes; BQ 2.5 minutes and NDP 2.5 minutes; CPC, 5 minutes; LPC, 5 minutes
Chronology of key events
: MP Kusie's motion that the committee undertake a study on federal contracts awarded to McKinsey was adopted. Departments were to provide documents by .
: CBSA (Vice-President Acton) sent a letter to the committee indicating that time and resources to translate materials were limited and signaling that a multi-tranche approach may be required.
: Response received from the Clerk of the committee strongly urging the CBSA to submit all documents, in both official languages, by the deadline.
: CBSA submitted package (for example, all documents in scope of the request) to the committee.
: CBSA received a letter from the committee requesting the submission of all documents without redactions. No deadline provided.
: The Minister of Public Safety along with the President and Executive Vice President of the CBSA appeared before the committee.
: CBSA received a letter from the committee requesting the submission of all documents without redactions by .
Around : McKinsey & Company submitted their package to the committee, which contained no redactions.
: PCO provided direction to engage with McKinsey & Company to seek consent to lift redactions.
: CBSA ATIP (DG and CPO Proulx) sent a letter to McKinsey & Company to seek their consent to fully disclose the information belonging to the company.
: CBSA ATIP (DG and CPO Proulx) sent a letter to a failed bidder to seek their consent to fully disclose the information belonging to the company.
: MP Barrett's motion to invite departments regarding translation and redactions was adopted.
: CBSA received a letter from the committee inviting the President, and others, to speak to redactions and translation included in its package to the committee.
: McKinsey & Company responded to the CBSA and provided their consent to release their information.
: Failed bidder responded to the CBSA, declining to provide consent to release their information.
: CBSA provided revised package to the committee.
: CBSA President attends OGGO committee.
- Date modified: