Exceeding expectations of cravenness every day ...
The amount of money the federal government spent on consulting firm McKinsey is much higher than what was reported in the media in recent days, with officials indicating this week it has topped $100 million.
Public broadcaster CBC had reported the Trudeau government awarded the U.S. multinational McKinsey $66 million in contracts since taking power in 2015, a dramatic increase over previous years under the Harper government.
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) indicated the exact amount is $101.4 million in a statement on Jan. 17.
It says that 23 contracts were awarded to the firm since 2015, three of which through open competition for a value of $55.8 million.
Another 18 contracts valued at $45.6 million were undertaken under a “National Master Standing Offer [NMSO] designed to provide access to proprietary benchmarking methodologies offered by the private sector.”
PSPC says only McKinsey provides this type of benchmarking service which aims to measure the performance of federal entities against similar Canadian and international organizations.
PSPC noted only two sole-source contracts awarded outside the NMSO, one for $24,860 and the other for zero dollars, since no task authorization has been issued yet against the contract.
The revelation comes just prior to a Jan. 18 meeting of the House of Commons government operations committee related to the matter.
“The contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company consulting firm over the past seven years demand this committee’s immediate attention,” wrote opposition MPs on the committee in a letter requesting the meeting.
A study will likely ensue following a vote, with the committee being composed of five Liberals and six opposition MPs.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Jan. 10 he wants the study to find out “what influence McKinsey has had in our government.”
He was echoed on the same day by Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François who said he was concerned about McKinsey having influence on policy decisions, notably in the field of immigration.
Neither called for a public inquiry at this stage.
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Federal employees overpaid due to garbled payroll software owe the treasury more than a half billion, say updated figures from the Department of Public Works. The department counted 120,000 current and former employees who received excess payments and have not returned the money to date: “Outstanding salary overpayments stand at approximately $559 million.”
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The Department of Health is rewriting its agreement with New Democrats over a national prescription drug insurance program. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos had committed to passing a bill by year’s end. A department briefing note now says it is sufficient to “work” on it: “Is this what Canadians voted for?”
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Premier Scott Moe took to Twitter Monday morning to express his disappointment.
“It’s disappointing because this is an area that the provincial and federal governments see eye to eye on, yet we were not aware of the Prime Minister’s visit,” he wrote in a statement.
That's because Justin is an arrogant sack of crap.
In the Canadian case, a boutique, one-woman ad agency in Vancouver tried to buy paid tweets to promote the well-reviewed documentary, which is partly funded by the federal government and available on the Crave cable and streaming service. Paid tweets look like regular ones but are given increased reach and are targeted at specific audiences. Twitter refused, citing in part its political and inappropriate content rules.
The film’s producers were welcome to advertise with “organic,” free tweets, but Twitter believes that getting wide reach for political messages “should be earned, not bought.”
Bakan says the platform does not overcome free expression problems by offering less-restricted use of organic tweets, as they are not nearly as effective as the paid ones.
In court, the group then argued that the company had violated contract law, largely because such agreements — even if not protected directly by the constitution — must still comply with basic constitutional and legal values under the “doctrine of public policy.”
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