Again, I spoke about the overreliance on some of the advice provided by these multinational consulting firms. There are a couple of really good articles and books on it that detail the way that, particularly since the 1980s, there's been increasing involvement of these types of consultancies in ostensibly providing advice to governments. They very seldom will say to increase investment in public services.
I was part of Peterborough city council for eight years and saw some of the consulting firms—KPMG and others—come forward without fail with recommendations to privatize or outsource public services. That was a common theme I heard from municipal colleagues across the province. Sometimes the presentations seemed like they just replaced the city name when they were doing that.
I think there are always grounds for concern when it comes to trying to create something public, in this case a public infrastructure bank, but relying on the advice of folks who are entirely enveloped in the private sector and in profit-making. There are lots of articles out there about the additional contracts of these consulting companies. We can argue whether or not they're related, but the appearance is questionable.
Like I mentioned in my opening statement, CUPE put in an inquiry to the ministry and found out that KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte had been hired as part of doing this five-year review of the CIB. Rather than have public players able to provide advice and feedback about what's worked or not worked for them, we're hiring external consultants who don't really understand the on-the-ground service delivery and what's really needed in communities.
It is a desperate situation. Mayor Brown mentioned that. I was formerly a mayor as well. We know that municipalities are running on fumes when it comes to our revenue generation ability. The reliance on senior levels of government to provide low-cost financing and funding to get these critical infrastructure pieces is very important.
I think that's what should be the crux of this conversation: How do we have this institution, the CIB, transformed or reoriented back towards its mandate, regardless of how we got here? If we want to talk about potential perceived conflicts of interest, then we could spend the next year delving into that. I think the ultimate question is how we ensure that those low-cost loans are making it to the municipalities that are in desperate need for funding into their failing infrastructure.