In recent months, the Conservatives in opposition have called for this investigation to shed light on these contracts. According to them, they recorded a great “multiplication“since 2015, when Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party came to power.
Garnett Genuis, Conservative MP, recently decried “the huge sum of money“paid to the company since that date. It would exceed 100 million Canadian dollars (69.5 million euros).
(Re)see: Canada: the McKinsey firm causes a scandal
Dominic Barton’s ties to Trudeau in question
The opposition also wants to clarify the links between Justin Trudeau and the former boss of McKinsey, Dominic Barton, whom it accuses of being close friends.
Dominic Barton was the head of McKinsey between 2009 and 2018, then Canada’s ambassador to China from 2019 to 2021.
In particular, he contributed to defusing the diplomatic crisis between the two countries. It was linked to Canada’s arrest, at the request of the United States, of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in 2018. The ambassador also negotiated the release of the two Canadians detained in China.
(Re)read: Canada’s turn to be grappling with a “McKinsey affair”
I am not a close personal friend of the Prime Minister
Dominic Barton, former McKinsey boss and former Canadian ambassador to China
Called to testify recently before a parliamentary committee, Dominic Barton was asked about the role of McKinsey. The firm is accused of having contributed to the opiate crisis in the United States.
Dominic Barton also had to speak on the contracts made with the Canadian government and his links with Justin Trudeau. He hammered: “I am not a close personal friend of the Prime Minister“.
He claimed he had no “had any involvement in the federal government awarding paid contracts to McKinsey since moving to Asia in 1996“.
A study by Carleton University in Ottawa found that the total value of contracts awarded to McKinsey nonetheless paled in comparison to those awarded to other companies such as Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC.
In France, searches were carried out at the end of January at the homes of leaders and former leaders of McKinsey as part of investigations into suspicions of illegal financing of Emmanuel Macron’s electoral campaigns in 2017 and 2022
(Re)read: McKinsey case: investigation opened in France for aggravated laundering of tax evasion
