Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to be here today. I hope I can be helpful as you seek to better understand the role of McKinsey and the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
I'm a senior partner at McKinsey, where I have worked for the past 25 years. Prior to my current role as the leader of McKinsey's public sector practice, I was the managing partner for McKinsey in Canada between 2017 and 2022.
I understand the committee's focus is on the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which I will refer to as the CIB. While I was not a member of the core McKinsey team that worked with the CIB, I will do my best to answer the committee's questions.
I would also like to make a few observations about the genesis of the CIB. As my colleague, Mr. Palter, has noted, the CIB is not a novel idea. The concept of leveraging private capital to bridge public infrastructure gaps has been around for decades, and organizations similar to the CIB have been deployed in many jurisdictions around the world.
The CIB was part of the Liberal Party's platform in the 2015 federal election. It was unanimously recommended by the growth council, which was established to advise the minister of finance. The legislation that formally established the CIB was approved by Parliament. McKinsey did not create the CIB, nor did McKinsey invent the concept of the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
McKinsey was asked to assist the growth council by providing research and global case studies on a pro bono basis. McKinsey's role was to provide an objective fact base to help inform the council discussions. McKinsey does not make policy recommendations. That was the role of the 14 members of the council who recommended the idea of the CIB. The growth council had a broad mandate that went well beyond infrastructure and the concept of an infrastructure bank. It eventually included 10 recommendations across a broad set of drivers of economic growth. Those recommendations included bringing foreign investment to Canada, unlocking innovation to drive scale and growth, building a skilled and resilient workforce, positioning Canada as a global trading hub, increasing workforce participation, equipping Canada's workforce with skills for the future, and unleashing productivity through infrastructure.
The CIB first engaged McKinsey in 2018, more than 18 months after the growth council's work issued its recommendations on infrastructure. That engagement was based on a process that followed the procurement rules of the Government of Canada. Our work with the CIB ended in 2020, before Ehren Cory became the CEO. We have not done any work with the CIB since 2020, and we have done no work with former McKinsey colleagues who have worked at the CIB.
McKinsey's volunteer work for the growth council is consistent with our long-standing and deep commitment to social responsibility and improving the communities in which we work. I was honoured to lead the McKinsey team in our support for the growth council. It was an opportunity to bring to bear our firm's global research in support of the council's mandate to grow the economy and to improve the lives of Canadians.
Our firm strongly believes that pro bono work and giving back to the local community is the responsibility of every colleague at McKinsey. As a firm, we will have committed $2 billion to social responsibility efforts by 2030. We have confidence in the capabilities and expertise of our people, who are our greatest resource. We engage our colleagues who are volunteering and support them in serving their local communities, and ensure our own actions align with our values. In Canada, we partner with numerous non-profits and a wide range of other organizations that are addressing some of the communities' most pressing challenges. This is true in every region in which we operate.
As I previously said, McKinsey's work with the CIB was important in helping the CIB operationalize its mandate from government at a time when it had very few resources of its own. While Mr. Palter is better positioned to speak to the specifics of that work, I would like to say that our goal, and the goal of McKinsey's public sector work in Canada, has always been to work with government to improve the lives and livelihoods of Canadians.
I'll be happy to answer any questions from the committee.
Thank you.