The federal government hired a consulting firm to get advice on how to better save money on consultants. According to spending details recently tabled in Parliament, the bill was well over half a million dollars.
The service involved developing “recommendations that could be considered as options to ensure that Canadians’ tax dollars are being used efficiently and being invested in the priorities that matter most to them.”
The cost of hiring KPMG consultants passed an additional $669,650 onto the taxpayer.
The money for KPMG, a global professional services company, was approved by Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.
The details about the contract were released by Treasury Board President Anita Arnand as part of the federal government’s plan to save around $15 billion over the next five years from existing spending plans.
In 2015, when the Trudeau government was first elected, the Liberals promised to cut back spending on external consultants, however their spending on these services has only grown in recent years.
Anand gave all federal departments a deadline of Oct. 2 to submit their proposals on how best to hit their savings targets, outlined in the 2023 budget.
The 2023 budget addressed consultation spending, outlining that “the government will focus on targeting these reductions on professional services, particularly management consulting.”
Recently, NDP MP Gord Johns had asked all federal departments to provide the details regarding any third-party management firms that were being used to aid in spending cuts.
Outside of the Department of Natural Resources, all other departments said that they had not contracted any consultants to help them with their proposals, according to the Globe and Mail.
Johns said that the KPMG contract is emblematic of “how ridiculous and out of control and absurd it’s getting” in regards to federal outsourcing.
“It needs to stop,” said Johns. “The government is pushing austerity and they continue to waste money.”
For example, the controversial ArriveCan app cost over $54 million to create, with a sizable chunk of that money spent solely on consulting contracts for IT services.
In the 2022-23 fiscal year, the Trudeau government spent $15.7 billion on outsourced professional and special services, an increase of 88% compared to 2015-16 fiscal year.
