House Hansard - 295

44th Parl. 1st Sess.

April 8, 2024 11:00AM

Apr/8/24 1:00:56 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, very clearly, under the NDP-Liberal government, contracting out is out of control. There has been a ballooning of external contracting, as well as significant growth in the public service. Do I think it is never reasonable to contract out? No, I do not think that. I think there are cases where contracting out is legitimate. However, we have seen an excessive use of management consulting and the use of unethical companies like McKinsey. There are contracts to contract, to subcontract and so on. I think our position is a reasonable and balanced one, which is that we need to have proper accountability and spending controls. The NDP is very disingenuous. It continually votes confidence and supply to its Liberal partners to allow them to pursue the same policies the member claims to denounce. If the member wants to actually see any kind of reform, if he wants to see us move away from the kind of excessive contracting out and the waste we have seen under the Liberal government, I would challenge him to put his money where his mouth is and to vote no confidence in the government.

192 words

Hear!
Rabble!
add
star_border
share

Context: House Hansard - 295 - Apr/8/24

Mr. Arnold Viersen (Peace River—Westlock, CPC)

Apr/8/24 4:04:17 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, in terms of one of the contracts that was signed with GC Strategies, GC Strategies actually designed the parameters of the contract and then got the contract later on. Was my hon. colleague aware of that, and could he explain it a little?

45 words

Hear!
Rabble!
add
star_border
share

Context: House Hansard - 295 - Apr/8/24

Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

Apr/8/24 5:00:34 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, I want to acknowledge that it is essential that we are moving forward. We seem to be on the same page on ensuring that we get the answers we need about how we got into this mess in the first place with the ArriveCAN app. I think this speaks to some bigger issues around the process of how money is being allocated to consultants and being contracted out. One thing that came up and that the member mentioned in her speech was this process in which the criteria for this contract was developed by the exact people who would receive the funds and are in question today. Why does the member feel it is a concern that the criteria was developed by the same people who received the funds to follow through on the contract? What does that mean for how Canadian taxpayers' money is being utilized?

149 words

Hear!
Rabble!
add
star_border
share

Context: House Hansard - 295 - Apr/8/24

Mrs. Julie Vignola

Apr/8/24 5:01:42 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, when the government drafts a contract or a call for tenders, it should know what it wants. If the government hires a company as a consultant to help it describe its needs more clearly, that is one thing. Normally, the government should know what it wants and how to describe it, but let us suppose that some artistic licence is taken. The company that was hired as a consultant should not be allowed to bid on a call for tenders it helped draft. If that happens, it can give the impression that the company drafted the call for tenders in such a way as to make sure it would win the contract. It is important to avoid the appearance of this kind of collusion at all costs.

129 words

Hear!
Rabble!
add
star_border
share

Context: House Hansard - 295 - Apr/8/24

Mr. Arnold Viersen

Apr/8/24 5:36:50 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more. That is precisely why this privilege motion has been brought forward. We are trying to get the answers to who authorized these contracts and what funny business was going on when the government allowed the company to write its own contracts and also suggested that other companies contract through GC Strategies, rather than directly with the government. These are all important questions that we would like to get the answers to, so we can get to the bottom of this and root out corruption, if there is any.

95 words

Hear!
Rabble!
add
star_border
share

SoVote

House Hansard - 295