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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 174

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 28, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 174 - Mar/28/23
Mr. Pierre Paul-Hus (Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, CPC)
  • Mar/28/23 2:38:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, the Minister of Finance will announce a $1.4-billion cut in spending on outside consultants. However, given that the government has increased the size of the public service by 28% since 2017, even more of the work that is currently being contracted out to private companies could be done in-house. The government is spending over $21 billion a year on outside contracts, and the proposed cut clearly shows that its real intention is to continue giving money to its cronies. Will the Prime Minister commit today to cut spending on outside contracts in order to reduce the burden on Canadians?
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Context: House Hansard - 174 - Mar/28/23
Hon. Mark Holland (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)
  • Mar/28/23 3:02:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important to be very careful how we characterize the use of consultant services. When a government is, for example, in a circumstance like a pandemic when it needs to scale up and expand its impact at a particular moment in time, it is important to be able to use contracting services so that we do not create permanent costs by engaging permanent employees. The use of contracts allows flexibility in government to expand to deliver services without permanently increasing costs. It is irresponsible to misrepresent that and to hold it out as something other than what it is.
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Context: House Hansard - 174 - Mar/28/23
Hon. Mark Holland (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)
  • Mar/28/23 3:03:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, the use of consultants is an ability that allows the government to maintain flexibility in difficult times. As an example, during the pandemic we had to vastly increase our ability to be there for Canadians and to be there for small business owners to make sure that their businesses did not fail so that they could have the success we are seeing in the incredible jobs recovery, which is one of the strongest of our comparator nations. It is in fact due to the ability to use the flexibility of contracts to achieve that. To mis-characterize that or to try to create shadows with it is irresponsible.
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