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Who runs the Trudeau authorities? Is it the politician we elect or the consultants that he then hires? It’s a legitimate query in mild of the most recent scandal to hit the federal government, huge contracts to a Liberal-friendly agency and complaints from bureaucrats that the consultants have been actually working the present.

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This time the agency is McKinsey, a worldwide consulting agency primarily based in america however with swanky, high-priced Canadian workplaces simply off of Bloor St. close to Yonge St. in Toronto.

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The difficulty started for Trudeau when The Canadian Press reported on Jan. 3 that McKinsey had obtained $84 million in contracts between March 2021 and November 2022. That info got here from an official authorities response to an order paper query submitted to the Home of Commons by Conservative MP Tako Van Popta.

Days later, CBC not solely reported on tens of millions extra in contracts given to McKinsey courting again to the early years of the Trudeau authorities, 30 occasions greater than the corporate obtained underneath the Harper authorities, in addition they reported on the affect the corporate has been wielding on the Trudeau authorities.

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This isn’t the primary time the Trudeau Liberals have sought to successfully use high-priced consultants to outsource the job of working the nation. After they have been first elected, they swore by Sir Michael Barber, a British guide who promised a brand new means of doing issues with one thing he referred to as “deliverology.”

Whereas the experiment with deliverology ended with a whimper in 2020, the reliance on outdoors consultants like McKinsey didn’t.

“McKinsey was an concept from the federal government. The coverage was determined for civil servants. It causes a number of operational instability,” an nameless supply from Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada informed CBC.

“These folks, these companies neglect the general public curiosity, they’re not fascinated with it. They’re not accountable.”

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McKinsey was employed to remodel the immigration division and it’s not clear that has labored given the backlog of greater than 2.5 million folks within the system and the present processing time of greater than 5 years for a talented tradesperson trying to come to Canada.

Hiring consultants is one thing each authorities does. Increasing the variety of consulting contracts and quickly increasing the variety of civil servants, although, is a feat Trudeau might need all to himself.

“We have to know what this cash was for, what affect McKinsey has had in our authorities,” Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre mentioned earlier this week.

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He’s calling for the Commons to carry hearings on the matter and has the help of the Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats to take action.

“All the things that the federal government has accomplished with the corporate since taking workplace needs to be made public in order that we will examine all of those information and maintain the federal government accountable,” Poilievre mentioned.

Talking with reporters in Mexico Metropolis on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned that he has requested his ministers to look into the matter.

“We’ll look into this to make sure that all the things was accomplished in the proper means, or whether or not we have to change or modify any guidelines,” Trudeau mentioned.

We don’t want the federal government investigating itself, we want the opposition to do this. The Trudeau Liberals have been huge on promising cooperation with Commons committees, however they don’t truly observe by way of on that cooperation when the time comes.

Consultants will at all times be a part of authorities, consultants on this scale, with this degree of wealth from taxpayers is one thing we must be fearful about.