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Context: House Hansard - 149 - Jan/30/23

Mrs. Kelly Block (Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, CPC)

Jan/30/23 2:11:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, over the last eight years under the Prime Minister, Canadians have been struggling. They are struggling under his wasteful, inflationary spending. Mortgage payments are taking a bigger bite out of paycheques. Food banks have seen a massive increase in families needing their services. Meanwhile, over the last eight years, Liberals and their well-connected friends have never had it so good. McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm surrounded by controversy and formerly run by the Prime Minister's friend, Dominic Barton, has received over $100 million in government contracts since 2015. Canadians deserve to know why the Liberals gave this consulting firm millions of dollars and what kind of influence McKinsey has over the government. The Liberals have created an unaccountable shadow government with their consultant friends, and Canadians are paying the price. The Prime Minister needs to come clean with Canadians, end his binge spending and—

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Context: House Hansard - 149 - Jan/30/23

Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Jan/30/23 2:25:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I asked the Prime Minister how much McKinsey got. He said that it was all for the middle class. He has always had difficulty defining what the middle class is, and now we know his definition. It is his friends who make $1,500 an hour as high-priced consultants for his government over at McKinsey, where his personal friend Dominic Barton was the boss. We now know that he spent $15 billion-plus per year on high-priced consultants while Canadians are eating at food banks and living in homeless shelters and while house prices have more than doubled. Again, how much did the Prime Minister's government give McKinsey?

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Context: House Hansard - 149 - Jan/30/23

Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Jan/30/23 2:29:21 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, we finally got the Prime Minister to admit that Canadians are suffering, and it is after eight years of the Prime Minister. After eight years of the Prime Minister, we have 40-year highs in inflation, we have a 32% increase in crime and we have the TTC transit system in downtown Toronto overtaken by crime. We have more people eating at food banks and living in homeless shelters after eight years of the Prime Minister, but not everybody is doing badly. His friends at McKinsey are rolling in cash. First, the Liberals said it was $50 million, and now the government says it is over $100 million. We want to know the real number. Will the Prime Minister finally answer the question? How much did he give McKinsey?

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Context: House Hansard - 149 - Jan/30/23

Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Jan/30/23 2:47:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Prime Minister, Canadians have never had it so bad while Liberal insiders like Dominic Barton have never had it so good. Dominic Barton was running a government advisory body while at the same time his company was collecting over $100 million in contracts on the side. Barton and his cronies at McKinsey had privileged access to the Prime Minister and were using that access to make money. The government has done so much for Dominic Barton and McKinsey and so little for struggling Canadians. Once again, will the government answer how much money in total it has given to McKinsey?

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Context: House Hansard - 149 - Jan/30/23

Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Jan/30/23 2:49:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps I can assist the minister in getting to the bottom of the circumstances around these contracts. The Prime Minister is a very close personal friend of Dominic Barton, who is the managing partner of McKinsey. Under Dominic Barton, McKinsey monitored dissident social media accounts for the Saudi government, had a corporate retreat down the road from a concentration camp in China and advised a pharmaceutical company to reward pharmacists for causing overdose deaths. We are the company we keep and the company the Prime Minister keeps is called McKinsey. Once again, how much money did the Prime Minister funnel to his friends at McKinsey?

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Context: House Hansard - 149 - Jan/30/23

Mr. Terry Beech (Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Jan/30/23 6:44:31 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, happy new year to you and to my friend from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan. As was stated by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, our government makes every effort to ensure that spending on official trips is both responsible and transparent. The official Canadian delegation included former prime ministers and the Governor General. All members of this delegation stayed at the same hotel, which was uniquely able to accommodate the size of the delegation during levels of extremely high demand, as members can imagine. Literally the entire world was heading to England for the Queen's funeral at the time. I have not prepared exactitudes on any McKinsey things today, but I do know that there was at least one contract that was issued where McKinsey was tasked to find some savings in a government program and it found $350 million in savings and $178 million of that has been implemented to date. I can get more details. I was not prepared to discuss McKinsey tonight. I personally had the opportunity as well to connect with my own constituents over the holidays and know that household budgets are being stretched by increases in interest rates, higher rents and higher food prices. Many of these challenges are global challenges created by external stressors, which include lingering effects of the COVID pandemic and, of course, Putin's illegal war in Ukraine. Impacts on the cost of food and energy have been especially significant. We do have some good news, however. While inflation is high, it has started to go down in Canada. Inflation was 8.1% in June and now is 6.3%. It is still high but it is heading in the right direction and it is lower than what we see in many of our peer economies. The United States still has inflation of 6.5%, the euro area of 9.2%, the United Kingdom of 10.5% and the OECD is also above 10% on average. While increased interest rates present their own burden, especially after rising from historic lows, private sector economists expect inflation to ease toward the 2% inflation target over the next two years. Canada's underlying economy is still very strong and that gives us the ability to help those who were most impacted by these challenges. In fact, Canada has created more than 659,000 jobs since the start of the pandemic and we have retained our AAA credit rating. We also have the lowest deficit and the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7. However, inflation in Canada is still too high and Canadians need help to make ends meet. This is why we have provided targeted relief while ensuring that our measures do not further increase inflation. For example, we doubled the GST credit for 11 million Canadians who need it the most. This is a great example to start with, of course, because my friend opposite also voted and supported that particular measure. In addition, we launched the Canada dental benefit for children under 12 with family incomes below $90,000. This will allow up to 500,000 kids to get their teeth fixed. I am pleased to report tonight that 153,000 families have already utilized the program. This is in addition to our child care investments that were just being debated in this House. I am happy to report that just today it was announced that 12,700 $10-a-day child care spaces are now available in British Columbia with more spaces opening up every day across Canada. Despite these supports, our government is continuing to run a tight fiscal ship. As I stated previously, we are able to make these investments because we have the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratios in the G7. At the same time, we have committed to saving $9 billion from government spending through budget 2022. As Canadians are cutting back in their costs, it is prudent that our government do the same. We will do that. We will make life more affordable for all Canadians right across the country.

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