Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Barton, I will begin by reminding you that the title of our committee's study today is the role of McKinsey & Company in the creation and the beginnings of the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
Since your opening statement, you have seemed to claim that McKinsey had nothing to do with this and exerted no clout whatsoever. Who recommended that the Canada Infrastructure Bank be created? It was the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which was chaired by you—McKinsey's global managing director. The secretariat of the same council that recommended the infrastructure bank be created was made up of McKinsey employees.
When the infrastructure bank was subsequently set up, to whom did the bank give consulting contracts to help it get started? McKinsey. In fact, a bunch of the Canada Infrastructure Bank's board members and senior management came from McKinsey. What's more, McKinsey clients have won millions of dollars in contracts from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. This bank has become such a creature of McKinsey that a former McKinsey partner is now its CEO.
Mr. Barton, did all of that happen by chance? Is it really a coincidence?