ESDC has spent $409.7 million on just four contracts alone. There was a further $70.5 million contract with IBM, and another with PricewaterhouseCoopers valued at $147 million. We're approaching $1 billion. These are astronomical figures. They're immense, and they're heavy for Canadians. All this spending has led to the brutal findings of the Auditor General. They're warning of another Phoenix.
I mentioned earlier that outsourcing, both in the instances for the National Capital Commission that we heard about audits for.... We've heard about audits for other instances, where outsourcing continues to run rampant. Phoenix is one of the largest fiascos we've seen in the history of Canada. We still have public servants today who don't even get their paycheques. You have to forgive me for being so concerned about the fact that IT specialists from outside government could be recommending systems that are now supposed to be in charge of things like CPP, employment insurance or old age security. These are extremely important programs that are valuable to Canadians. We're just going to gamble on it and get a similar result to Phoenix. I'm nervous about the risk these contracts take on for Canadians, both in price increases.... They're not serving Canadians. The difference between the public service and...is that the public service wants to serve Canadians. Their primary job is to serve Canadians. McKinsey's job is to make money for their shareholders.
How can Canadians get assurances that these programs aren't going to be gambled away, finding the same problems we found with Phoenix?