Another Trudeau scandal?

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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I can't help but think of the phrase "Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean you have to".
It’s the scale of its use between Harper and Trudeau that rings the alarm bell for me.
Pretty much same for me.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party’s MPs will ask a parliamentary committee to study federal contracts given to the consulting firm McKinsey, following recent media reports describing a spike in awards to the company under the Liberal government.

Poilievre’s call comes after Radio-Canada reported that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government spent 30 times more on contracts with the consulting firm than what was granted to McKinsey under his predecessor, Stephen Harper.

According to Radio-Canada’s reporting, which Poilievre cited, Harper’s government awarded $2.2 million in contracts to McKinsey over the nine years it was in power. Since coming to office in 2015, however, Trudeau’s government reportedly gave $66 million in contracts to the firm.
The first question is easy. Transparency is the enemy of fascist governments. The second has several potential answers. Most probable is to keep our Ponzi scheme pension plan afloat. Another is to make us closer to a third world country with low wages for those that look after the ruling class.
“Recent reporting has shown neither the company nor the government is willing to explain what the money is for,” Poilievre said, speaking in a press conference on Tuesday. (Go Figure…???)

Poilievre also expressed concerns about the potential influence of the firm, and Trudeau’s decision to appoint former McKinsey director Dominic Barton as his ambassador to China for just over two years, ending in 2021.

In order to launch such a study, however, Conservative MPs will need to submit a formal motion to the government operations committee. Then, the request will have to pass a vote.

With five Liberals and five opposition members sitting on the committee, the Tories can only win that vote if they have the support of all opposition MPs — and the Conservative chair….but with the NDP being a Wing of the Liberal Party with the Non-Coalition Coalition’s Coalition…odds are that’s sure as shit not gonna happen

Poilievre said the motion will also seek documents about the McKinsey contracts. “That includes contracts, conversations, records of work done, meetings held, text messages, email exchanges, everything that the government has with the company since taking office should be made public so that we can study all of these facts and hold the government accountable,” he said. (Accountable…lots of luck)
 

Dixie Cup

Senate Member
Sep 16, 2006
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party’s MPs will ask a parliamentary committee to study federal contracts given to the consulting firm McKinsey, following recent media reports describing a spike in awards to the company under the Liberal government.

Poilievre’s call comes after Radio-Canada reported that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government spent 30 times more on contracts with the consulting firm than what was granted to McKinsey under his predecessor, Stephen Harper.

According to Radio-Canada’s reporting, which Poilievre cited, Harper’s government awarded $2.2 million in contracts to McKinsey over the nine years it was in power. Since coming to office in 2015, however, Trudeau’s government reportedly gave $66 million in contracts to the firm.

“Recent reporting has shown neither the company nor the government is willing to explain what the money is for,” Poilievre said, speaking in a press conference on Tuesday. (Go Figure…???)

Poilievre also expressed concerns about the potential influence of the firm, and Trudeau’s decision to appoint former McKinsey director Dominic Barton as his ambassador to China for just over two years, ending in 2021.

In order to launch such a study, however, Conservative MPs will need to submit a formal motion to the government operations committee. Then, the request will have to pass a vote.

With five Liberals and five opposition members sitting on the committee, the Tories can only win that vote if they have the support of all opposition MPs — and the Conservative chair….but with the NDP being a Wing of the Liberal Party with the Non-Coalition Coalition’s Coalition…odds are that’s sure as shit not gonna happen

Poilievre said the motion will also seek documents about the McKinsey contracts. “That includes contracts, conversations, records of work done, meetings held, text messages, email exchanges, everything that the government has with the company since taking office should be made public so that we can study all of these facts and hold the government accountable,” he said. (Accountable…lots of luck)
Likely won't happen under Trudeau. If the Conservatives ever win a majority, then they can look into things, as long as documents haven't been destroyed. But hey, as long as Trudeau is in power, the corruption will continue. Nothing to see here....
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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The number of bureaucrats working at the end of each fiscal year has jumped from 195,565 in 2015 to 254,309 in 2022 – a 30-per-cent increase compared to the Harper government’s nearly 10-per-cent decrease from 2010 to 2015….(2015 being the last year that Canada had a balanced budget…sorry, early in 2015 & then Harper left).

The trend has been broad-based and can’t be pinned on extraordinary circumstances. Out of 58 federal departments and agencies in the core civil service, 53 increased their employee count between 2015 and 2021.

This massive hiring raises questions about long-term costs for Ottawa, and also about a. There is no metric for gauging the effectiveness of the Liberals’ push to grow the federal civil service; if anything, there is evidence the money has done nothing to improve federal services – just ask anyone who has had to wait for months to get a new passport, or to have their immigration application processed.

The hiring spree is rendered even more complicated by yet another troubling Trudeau-era tendency – the more than 40-per-cent increase in spending on federal outsourcing of professional and special services from 2015 to 2022. The total federal spend on contracts for 2020-2021 was $11.8-billion.

The Trudeau government’s taste for hiring consultants is at odds with its 2015 election promise to cut back on outsourcing. And it makes the civil service hiring spree yet more problematic: Why take on so many new employees while also being increasingly reliant on expensive outside experts?

Under the Liberals, the Senate is paying more people to work for fewer senators (currently there are 12 vacancies, and the government is paying more outsiders to do the work of the many more civil servants it has brought into the federal fold.

It doesn’t add up, at least not logically. It will certainly add up budget-wise, though, when it comes to increased spending by Ottawa. And it’s all happening as the country faces the prospect of a recession this year and beyond.

The Senate had the equivalent of 372 full-time employees in 2017. Today it has 493, a 32.5-per-cent jump over a period during much of which, as has already been noted, the chamber has had at least a dozen vacancies.

That hard-to-square equation – more public employees working for fewer senators – fits into the broader context of the civil service hiring spree that has become a trademark of the Trudeau era.
 

Serryah

Executive Branch Member
Dec 3, 2008
9,855
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New Brunswick
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says his party’s MPs will ask a parliamentary committee to study federal contracts given to the consulting firm McKinsey, following recent media reports describing a spike in awards to the company under the Liberal government.

Poilievre’s call comes after Radio-Canada reported that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government spent 30 times more on contracts with the consulting firm than what was granted to McKinsey under his predecessor, Stephen Harper.

According to Radio-Canada’s reporting, which Poilievre cited, Harper’s government awarded $2.2 million in contracts to McKinsey over the nine years it was in power. Since coming to office in 2015, however, Trudeau’s government reportedly gave $66 million in contracts to the firm.

“Recent reporting has shown neither the company nor the government is willing to explain what the money is for,” Poilievre said, speaking in a press conference on Tuesday. (Go Figure…???)

Poilievre also expressed concerns about the potential influence of the firm, and Trudeau’s decision to appoint former McKinsey director Dominic Barton as his ambassador to China for just over two years, ending in 2021.

In order to launch such a study, however, Conservative MPs will need to submit a formal motion to the government operations committee. Then, the request will have to pass a vote.

With five Liberals and five opposition members sitting on the committee, the Tories can only win that vote if they have the support of all opposition MPs — and the Conservative chair….but with the NDP being a Wing of the Liberal Party with the Non-Coalition Coalition’s Coalition…odds are that’s sure as shit not gonna happen

Poilievre said the motion will also seek documents about the McKinsey contracts. “That includes contracts, conversations, records of work done, meetings held, text messages, email exchanges, everything that the government has with the company since taking office should be made public so that we can study all of these facts and hold the government accountable,” he said. (Accountable…lots of luck)

Here's a heart attack for some.

I agree with PP on this one.
 

The_Foxer

House Member
Aug 9, 2022
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Honestly, I’m not surprised. For Poilievre, for some, it might be a case of “Even a broken clock is right twice a day” but he’s not wrong much of the time.
True. He's actually got a very keen eye for that kind of stuff. And his track record for predicting things has been spot on.

It does give me hope, overall he's got a pretty solid mind for how gov't money works, and when he gets in he may well be able to turn things around much as harper did during his recession.
 
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Taxslave2

House Member
Aug 13, 2022
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The number of bureaucrats working at the end of each fiscal year has jumped from 195,565 in 2015 to 254,309 in 2022 – a 30-per-cent increase compared to the Harper government’s nearly 10-per-cent decrease from 2010 to 2015….(2015 being the last year that Canada had a balanced budget…sorry, early in 2015 & then Harper left).

The trend has been broad-based and can’t be pinned on extraordinary circumstances. Out of 58 federal departments and agencies in the core civil service, 53 increased their employee count between 2015 and 2021.

This massive hiring raises questions about long-term costs for Ottawa, and also about a. There is no metric for gauging the effectiveness of the Liberals’ push to grow the federal civil service; if anything, there is evidence the money has done nothing to improve federal services – just ask anyone who has had to wait for months to get a new passport, or to have their immigration application processed.

The hiring spree is rendered even more complicated by yet another troubling Trudeau-era tendency – the more than 40-per-cent increase in spending on federal outsourcing of professional and special services from 2015 to 2022. The total federal spend on contracts for 2020-2021 was $11.8-billion.

The Trudeau government’s taste for hiring consultants is at odds with its 2015 election promise to cut back on outsourcing. And it makes the civil service hiring spree yet more problematic: Why take on so many new employees while also being increasingly reliant on expensive outside experts?

Under the Liberals, the Senate is paying more people to work for fewer senators (currently there are 12 vacancies, and the government is paying more outsiders to do the work of the many more civil servants it has brought into the federal fold.

It doesn’t add up, at least not logically. It will certainly add up budget-wise, though, when it comes to increased spending by Ottawa. And it’s all happening as the country faces the prospect of a recession this year and beyond.

The Senate had the equivalent of 372 full-time employees in 2017. Today it has 493, a 32.5-per-cent jump over a period during much of which, as has already been noted, the chamber has had at least a dozen vacancies.

That hard-to-square equation – more public employees working for fewer senators – fits into the broader context of the civil service hiring spree that has become a trademark of the Trudeau era.
There is another important question. Who is looking out for us if there are 12 Senate Vacancies? Another question might be if the government is functioning without this many Senators, do we even need a Senate?
 
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Tecumsehsbones

Hall of Fame Member
Mar 18, 2013
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There is another important question. Who is looking out for us if there are 12 Senate Vacancies? Another question might be if the government is functioning without this many Senators, do we even need a Senate?
Has the Senate ever really done much? Our Senate has a real role in legislation, the British House of Lords has maybe one dull tooth left.

Where would you put the Canadian Senate on that scale?
 

The_Foxer

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Aug 9, 2022
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There is another important question. Who is looking out for us if there are 12 Senate Vacancies? Another question might be if the government is functioning without this many Senators, do we even need a Senate?
Well that question was kicked around quite a bit in harper's day - as you may recall he famously refused to appoint anyone to the senate for a very long time and many seats went vacant.

The fact is we do need a senate, but the way our current senate is set up it just doesn't perform the role it's supposed to effectively. It HAS stepped in a few times to prevent gov'ts from pushing bad legislation, and lets not forget that the only reason trudeau shut down the Emergency Act was the senate made it clear they were about to vote against him.

So sure - we do benefit from a senate, but we're missing out on it's potential tremendously by having it configured the way it is. Which is why the Conservatives have tended to say we need to reform the senate, but the supreme court keeps shooting down their efforts (remember the old 'triple E' senate argument? Effective, elected and.. can't remember the last one. Exotic? Expensive? Whatever - the whole point was to make it accountable to the people).
 
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IdRatherBeSkiing

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May 28, 2007
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Well that question was kicked around quite a bit in harper's day - as you may recall he famously refused to appoint anyone to the senate for a very long time and many seats went vacant.

The fact is we do need a senate, but the way our current senate is set up it just doesn't perform the role it's supposed to effectively. It HAS stepped in a few times to prevent gov'ts from pushing bad legislation, and lets not forget that the only reason trudeau shut down the Emergency Act was the senate made it clear they were about to vote against him.

So sure - we do benefit from a senate, but we're missing out on it's potential tremendously by having it configured the way it is. Which is why the Conservatives have tended to say we need to reform the senate, but the supreme court keeps shooting down their efforts (remember the old 'triple E' senate argument? Effective, elected and.. can't remember the last one. Exotic? Expensive? Whatever - the whole point was to make it accountable to the people).
I think the third E was equal.
 
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The_Foxer

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I think the third E was equal.
There you go! I knew it was something relatively unattainable :) But yes, it's been recognized for some time that the current configuration really isn't any of those things. especially the first two.

The idea was that the senate would have a more geographically influenced rather than purely population based, and that would help level out the 'tyranny' of the larger provinces. And that would help alleviate a lot of problems IF the senators were elected and had enough horsepower to make life hard for any law trying to be pushed through that was an unfair or bad law for some regions. I don't exactly like the american version where the senate can just vote down house bills entirely but they should be able to force bills to be reconsidered and amended.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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…….According to Radio-Canada’s reporting, which Poilievre cited, Harper’s government awarded $2.2 million in contracts to McKinsey over the nine years it was in power. Since coming to office in 2015, however, Trudeau’s government reportedly gave $66 million in contracts to the firm.

“Recent reporting has shown neither the company nor the government is willing to explain what the money is for,” Poilievre said, speaking in a press conference on Tuesday. (Go Figure…???)
$66 million is now so yesterday’s news. The trouble began for Trudeau when The Canadian Press reported on Jan. 3 that McKinsey had received $84 million in contracts between March 2021 and November 2022. That information came from an official government response to an order paper question submitted to the House of Commons by Conservative MP Tako Van Popta.

Who runs the Trudeau government? Is it the politician we elect or the consultants that he then hires? It’s a valid question in light of the latest scandal to hit the government, massive contracts to a Liberal-friendly firm and complaints from bureaucrats that the consultants were really running the show.

This time the firm is McKinsey, a global consulting firm based in the United States but with swanky, high-priced Canadian offices just off of Bloor St. near Yonge St. in Toronto.


McKinsey was hired to transform the immigration department and it’s not clear that has worked given the backlog of more than 2.5 million people in the system and the current processing time of more than five years for a skilled tradesperson looking to come to Canada.

Hiring consultants is something every government does. Expanding the number of consulting contracts and rapidly expanding the number of civil servants, though, is a feat Trudeau might have all to himself.

Speaking with reporters in Mexico City on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he has asked his ministers to look into the matter. “We will look into this to ensure that everything was done in the right way, or whether we need to change or adjust any rules,” Trudeau said.

So…they’re going to investigate themselves? I wonder what the outcome of that will be? Hmmm…