QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Procurement Process
October 8, 2024
Minister, in reports released earlier this year, both the Auditor General and the Procurement Ombud investigated the millions given in shady contracts by your government to well-connected Liberal insiders at the McKinsey Canada consulting firm. This includes two contracts from your department worth a combined $27 million. You have been the immigration minister for 14 months now. It is your responsibility to take the findings of these reports seriously.
Minister, have you read the reports, and what have you done to address their findings?
Senator, I absolutely do take these reports very seriously. I think we can agree that external consultants, at times, play an important role — not an overarching role. The history of that is vested — and we probably don’t need to revisit it — in the gutting of the public service that Stephen Harper effected. That is not necessarily a reason for where we are today, I will acknowledge, but that is a factor in the use of external consultants.
To the extent that they are excessive and unneeded, I have spoken to my department. They are very aware of these findings, and it’s something that we constantly review to see whether we actually need external consultants to do the roles that internal folks could do.
I would hasten to add that I have never met any of these alleged people. I want that clear for the record.
You have been in government for the past nine years, so I fail to understand why you’re talking about Stephen Harper.
In any event, your department routinely handles the highly personal information of individuals. Yet in her report, the Auditor General found that five McKinsey contractors were granted access to your department’s network without valid security clearance.
Minister, can you guarantee to Canadians that this practice is not currently happening in your department and that all security requirements are being met?
Let me say clearly, senator, that we do take these allegations quite seriously. The department is very conscious of making sure that all security protocols are followed by anyone who has access to our systems, if any.
