Ottawa, ON – Aaron Gunn, Conservative Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, released the following statement on Dominic Barton’s appointment as Chair of the Board of Invest in Canada:
“Just two weeks before his flagship investment summit, Mark Carney has appointed another long-time Liberal insider to run the agency meant to generate Carney’s illusionary $1 trillion in new foreign investment coming into Canada. Choosing Dominic Barton is yet more evidence that Carney is just another Liberal.
“While managing partner at McKinsey, the firm advised Purdue Pharma on how to ‘supercharge’ sales of the highly-addictive opioid OxyContin, even going so far as to advise giving out bonuses and rebates to sellers based on the number of drug overdoses in their areas. In 2024, McKinsey was forced to pay $650 million for their role in accelerating the opioid epidemic that has tragically killed more than 56,000 Canadians over the last decade.
“McKinsey also worked with Chinese government companies involved in violating international law, with the New York Times reporting the company does business with 22 of the 100 largest state-owned enterprises. In 2018, McKinsey even held their company retreat in Xinjiang, at the heart of the Uyghur genocide perpetrated by Beijing.
“Together with Mark Wiseman, now Carney’s Ambassador to Washington, Barton was also behind the radical open borders Century Initiative. There, he pushed for the Liberals to more than double Canada’s population to 100 million people, which would help multinational corporations drive down wages for Canadian workers and make the housing crisis even worse.
“The Liberals appointed Barton as head of the Advisory Council on Economic Growth in 2016, with McKinsey providing the council with free ‘research, analysis and administration’ support. Along with Carney’s hand-picked Clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Sabia, and Mark Wiseman, Barton also advocated for the failed Canada Infrastructure Bank that never ‘catalyzed’ the promised private sector investment and lost taxpayers over a quarter of a billion dollars.
“Barton and McKinsey then pitched the failed Supercluster strategy in 2018, costing Canadians over $1 billion, with no proof it created the planned jobs.
“While taxpayers lost out, insiders and McKinsey got rich. Between 2015 and 2023, McKinsey would be awarded $200 million in contracts with the Auditor General finding the Liberals awarded 90 per cent of the contracts without following appropriate guidelines.
“This appointment proves the Prime Minister is reading from the same Liberal songsheet, with cushy appointments for favoured insiders, no matter how disastrous their records may be. Conservatives will always fight for a government that is effective and accountable: one that serves hard-working families and businesses, and not just the chosen Liberal club.”