This Winnipeg Free Press article  reveals a long list of studies by private consultants ordered by the Pallister government since they took office in 2016. The article quotes Winnipeg political scientist Paul Thomas, who comments on the trend to rely on outside consultants as it reduces the number of in-house policy analysts. This is a problem because [outside consultants tend to] “do the bidding of the political masters…if you’re in the consulting business you don’t want to burn your bridges by saying to government, ‘there’s far less money to be saved here, and these programs are not as bad as you think they are’. So as noted in this article, the ‘value-for-money audits that are used to justify spending millions of dollars on consultants are all too often ‘self-fulfilling political exercises:

Aligned with the rhetoric around ‘value-for-money audits’, watch for this list to grow. To date it includes:

Health System Sustainability & Innovation Review (KPMG)                                        $749,000 Virgo Mental Health & Addictions Review                                                                         194,050 Health Wait Times Task Force                                                                                               150,000 Manitoba Fiscal Performance Review (KPMG)                                                                  750,000 Pricewaterhouse Coopers Procurement Modernization Strategy                              6,300,000 Constitutional Opinion from Brian Schwartz on Carbon Pricing                                    40,000 KPMG P3 Business Case – Manitoba Schools Project                                                        287,000 Economic Development Strategy (Deloitte LLP)                                                                150,000 Look North Consultation                                                                                                          73,714 Optimus/SBR Fairness Report (Cannabis retail)                                                                  17,386 MLT Aikins Policy Review of Workplace Harrassment and Sexual                      Harrassment Policies, Practices and Procedures                                                               46,000  Boston Consulting Financial Review of Manitoba Hydro                                            4,300,000 Economic Review of Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask and Bipole III projects, (Gordon Campbell)                                                                                                                              2,500,000 Fisheries review by Signature Mediation                                                                          150,000 Sustainability Review of Manitoba Horse Racing Industry                                           135,000 Colleges Review by Higher Education Associates                                                            207,000 Social Impact Bonds Strategy by MaRS Centre for Impact Learning                           150,000 CancerCare Manitoba Operational Review                                                            cost unknown