Evidence of meeting #50 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
We had a team of 600 staff and seven other executives who reported directly to me as the CEO.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
For CIB, what is the number of staff you have currently reporting to you in total and at the executive level?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
I have six executives and a total organization of 115 employees. We're small but mighty at the CIB.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Out of the six executives, aside from your executive assistant, how many are from McKinsey?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
One also worked there a long time ago.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
In the past five years, how many of them worked for McKinsey?
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Can you talk to me about some of the work you did with the Province of Ontario and others around infrastructure, and the number of projects and what the results were?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Of course.
My background was in large capital projects and project delivery. I started working entirely in the private sector, so I was working with large energy companies, renewable power companies and Canadian mining companies on their work both in Canada and around the world. Through that work I developed quite a bit of expertise around what it takes to get large-scale projects done, whether infrastructure or a large mine or a solar power project.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Can you talk to me about the partnership model you needed to roll out when you were with Ontario and how it helped you not only to qualify for the position of CEO at the CIB but also to manage it?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Given my background, I joined Infrastructure Ontario in late 2012. I think the work we've done in Ontario to get more infrastructure built over the last decade has used this idea of hybrid models, such that you're bringing in private sector expertise—engineering firms, architecture firms, construction firms—and private finance where it's helpful, while still keeping public ownership of the assets. That's the P3 model. If you look at Ontario, all of the hospitals and all of the roads and highways and courthouses we built, for which Infrastructure Ontario oversaw the construction, remained public assets, but they leveraged the best of the private sector. We're trying to apply some of the same logic at the CIB.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay. Thank you.
Can you tell me how many contracts, when you were heading the Ontario practice, were awarded to McKinsey?
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
To the best of my recollection, one.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
February 6th, 2023 / 5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Again, I don't remember figures, but I can tell you—
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
It was less than $1 million.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
It was less than $1 million. Great.
Now let's focus on your role since 2020.
In general, when you walked into this role, what did you inherit? Did you inherit projects, or did you inherit just strategies or structures that you had to execute?
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Well, as I mentioned in my opening comments, the CIB was launched late in 2017 with the appointment of a board. Really, it was 2018 when staff started to join.
Early on there was a really significant investment by the CIB in the REM transit project in Montreal, which was a great foundation. Following that, there was a period of about 18 months when I think the CIB was very focused on trying to build relationships with provinces, with municipalities and with private sector owners. It was trying to figure out how exactly to get through the governance and the process of making investments—
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
I think that in many ways it's normal in standing up an organization from scratch. I think also that we learned some things along the way, in answer to the question, in terms of what it takes for us to be good partners with municipalities, with indigenous communities and with the private sector.
When I joined in November 2020, we had made only the one investment in the REM. In my opening comments today, I mentioned that we're at 43. They're approaching $9 billion of our money, and those are real investments—
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you. I have 15 seconds and I just want to get to a couple of other points.
Can you tell me how much the four so-called huge projects were in total value to McKinsey?