(Ottawa) The former McKinsey CEO on Wednesday denied having a friendly relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, contrary to what Conservatives claim. An investigation by the parliamentary committee is trying to shed light on the hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts the federal government has awarded to the consulting firm.
Posted at 5:41pm Updated at 8:33pm
“No, I’m not a friend,” he responded to a question from Alberta Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie, who bombarded him with questions about the nature of his relationship with Mr. Trudeau.
“I have a professional relationship with him,” he added, adding that he doesn’t have his personal phone number and has never been in a room alone with him. It was a “fiction,” he said in a press crowd.
He also said he didn’t know Mr. Trudeau until 2013 because he had lived in Asia for a long time and followed what was happening in Canada less. At the time, the Prime Minister was leader of the third opposition party in the House of Commons.
The man who ran McKinsey until 2018 remained indolent throughout his testimony before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. He had traveled to Ottawa from Nairobi, Kenya to deliver it personally. Opposition parties have questioned him about McKinsey’s role in the opioid crisis, his role in setting the threshold for immigration to Canada and securing juicy government contracts.
All contracts concluded went through a process run by officials, not the political class. And I had no idea what those contracts were about. You have to talk to the teams that were there.
Dominic Barton, former CEO of McKinsey
MPs from the Conservative Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) have prosecuted him over the consulting firm’s role in the opioid crisis. McKinsey had to pay nearly $600 million to 47 states to help drug companies boost opioid sales, including the maker of OxyContin. Dominic Barton was General Manager for the company’s worldwide operations while working for the company.
“The work was legal, but it was obviously well below the standards of what we do,” he admitted. I feel very bad about it, but there is a difference between this problem being a bug and saying that we were the architect of a larger program. »
Pressed with questions, he said he didn’t know at the time that McKinsey was involved in a contract to manufacture opioids and that he couldn’t know everything since the company had 2,700 employees.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re on friendly terms with the Prime Minister or not, one thing you have in common with him is that you take no responsibility for what happened under your watch,” Alberta Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said.
The Bloc Québécois is more interested in the connections between Dominic Barton, co-founder of the Century Initiative advocacy group, and Canada’s goal of welcoming 500,000 newcomers annually by 2025. The Century Initiative advocates the implementation of public policies to increase Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100. Mr. Barton chaired the Advisory Council on Economic Growth at the request of former Treasury Secretary Bill Morneau.
“These 500,000 did not come from the advisory board. That’s more than what the Growth Council said,” explained Mr Barton, noting that the group only makes recommendations and it is up to the government to implement them or not.
Referring to the 81-year open contract McKinsey was granted by the government, Mr Barton admitted he would not have done it as a manager. The contract was awarded after he left.
He repeatedly asserted that he had never been involved in McKinsey’s contracts with the Canadian government because, as a big boss, he did not work directly with customers. He also repeatedly pointed out that the company closes 3,000 contracts a day.
Dominic Barton ran McKinsey until 2018. A year later he was appointed Canadian Ambassador to China, a position he held until 2021, with a mandate to advocate for the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
“It was the greatest honor of my life to do this job, but I didn’t volunteer for it,” he said. It was then that he had his first interaction with Mr. Trudeau to find a way to restore communications with China.
Before the adjournment, the NDP tabled a motion to extend the parliamentary inquiry to other consultancies that have been commissioned by the federal government, such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Ernst & Young. This will be debated on Monday.