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Written by Taylor Rattray and Creeden Martell

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The Ministry of Health uses the highest number of consultants after Central Services. We identified 38 firms and individuals paid a combined $17.2 million in 2013-2014, up from $14.7 million the previous year. This is significantly more than the consultants we identified in 2005-2006, which numbered seven and earned $3.6 million.

Organizations such as the Kaizan Institute, John Black and Associates, Lean Advisors (Canada) Inc. and Syntegrity focussed on lean management and organizational change. There were also some consulting physicians, as well as groups involved in health care policy development and IT management.

The implementation of Lean appears to have increased spending in the ministry. Lean consultant John Black & Associates was the highest paid consultant, earning over $20 million by the end of the 2013-2014 fiscal year. It was recently announced that the government is ending the contract, suggesting that spending in this area should be expected to decline, if not in the current 2014-2015 fiscal year, then in the next.

In common with some other ministries, there was some blurring between employee-consultant lines, with some individuals appearing to simultaenoulsy be government employees and/or consultants depending on the source of information.

The top-earning contracts between 2012 and 2014 were:

• John Black and Associates (Lean management, $20,568,414)
• CGI Informations Systems and Management Consultants (IT management, $5,369,411)
• VFA Canada Corp (Capital planning, $1,735,775)
• Health Conveyance Inc (Communications, $398,197 – no website)
• Earnst & Young (Financial analysis & audits, $394,691)
• Perry Martin Consultants Inc (Strategic communications, organizational planning, $377,656)

The fourth-highest earning company, Health Conveyance, became a matter of public interest after owner Corey Tochor was elected as a Sask Party MLA in 2011. In June 2012, the province's conflict of interest commissioner, Ron Barclay, granted a temporary exemption that allowed Health Conveyance to finish up a four-year contract while Tochor arranged the company's sale. He is no longer listed as an owner. 

Health downloadable data spreadsheet (Excel file)

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Highways and Infrastructure loomed large in the last provincial budget, with the government pledging $576 to upgrade the province’s roads and bridges.

The ministry also stands tall in consultant spending, ranking third behind Central Services and Health in our review. We identified 45 consultants earning $7.4 million in 2013-2014. This was a big jump from the $2.7 million spent in 2008-2009, and just over $1 million spent in 2005-2006.

Over the past two years of public accounts, engineering consultants were the most in demand, followed management consultants. There were also a few forestry and environmental consultants hired by the ministry.

Top consultants over two years, between 2012 and 2014, were:

• EBA Engineering Consultants ($2,423,944)
• EBA Tetra Tech EBA ($2,198,339 – Tetra Tech acquired EBA, so they share the same website)
• MDH Engineered Solutions ($1,158,853)

Management consultants included:

• MMM Group (Project planning, $597,778)
• Vemax Management (Asset management, $591,432)

Highways downloadable data spreadsheet (Excel file)

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Parks, Culture and Sport offers a substantial amount of funding to community organizations and programs, ranging from the now crippled Active Families Benefit tax, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and a few Francophone initiatives throughout the province. The ministry has experienced some ebbs and flows in its staffing but it has remained a fairly consistent entity.

Culture, Parks and Sport employed six consulting firms in the years examined. These included:

• Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP. 2013-2014. $60,109.00: World's second largest professional services network. It has 157 firms across the world that are under its fold, largely providing tax, assurance, and advisory services. PwC was contracted to oversea Lean implementation across Saskatchewan ministries.

• Westmark Consulting LLP 2012-2013. $65,575.00: Westmark is a management consulting service provider specifically gauged towards lean structures and businesses. Westmark Consulting LLP is based in Vancouver, run by Greg Shea the co-founder and partner, Haneef Chagani co-founder and partner, and Jie Feng a partner. While it was still operating independently, as of 2014 it came under the control of PwC (Price Waterhouse Cooper).

• BB Consulting Services. 2012-2013. $60,336.00: The firm was tasked with doing IT for the department.

• McNair Business Development Inc. 2012-2013. $99,400.00: McNair focuses on marketing and business management in its consulting work. To a lesser extent they also have researchers and ‘thought leaders’, which essentially means speakers and people to conduct seminars. It is based in Regina and is headed by founder and President Doug McNair.

• Perspect Management Consulting Inc. 2012-2013. $244,002.00: Services are geared towards management strategies and efficiency in the workplace. Additional information was hard to find as the jargon of consulting companies often says several things but means nothing. It was started by Colin Mcallister, who has a history with the government of Saskatchewan as a former employee and consultant, primarily focused on promoting Lean initiatives. His employment with the Saskatchewan government is as follows:
• · Lean Transformation Leader at Saskatchewan Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport from December 2011 – October 2012
• · Ogranizational Change Consultant / Enterpise Portfolio Manager Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority April 2013 – April 2014
• · Lean Consultant Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation March 2012 – December 2014

• Trails Work Consulting 2008-2009. $50,383.00: Trails Work is a consulting firm based out of Sioux Falls, North Dakota that provides expertise on snowmobile and ATV trails.

Consulting trends for this department were fairly innocuous compared to other agencies. Across the surveyed years the annual total paid to consulting agencies totalled: $60,109.00 in 2013-2014, $469,313.00 in 2012-2013, $50,383.00 in 2008-2009, and $0.00 in 2005-2006.

The two years under $100,000 represent only one contract each year, which when looking at the 2006-2006 result of $0 being spent on consulting firms not terribly surprising. The 2012-2013 total of $469,313.00 is the largest sum spent on consulting across the board for this department,

Following the trend that has been noted in media reports, more spending on consultants occurred after the Sask Party took office in 2008-2009.

 Graphics by Kendall Latimer

Parks downloadable spreadsheet (Excel file)

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The ministry of social services supports citizens at risk, providing child, family and disability supports. The ministry also supports community-based organizations.

Due to the nature of its work, many of the payments listed involve legal and counselling work connected to serving clients. For example, the Merchant Law Group billed $920,500 in 2012-2013.

Management, communications and IT consultants are less common, although there have been some.

Among the years examined, consultants played a larger role in the past than they do today, with some $860,000 spent in 2005-2006, in addition to an over $3 million IBM contract. IBM's services are included because SaskTenders describes IBM service contracts as consutling. (This amount does not represent physical assets, listed in a separate section of public accounts.)

In contrast, just over $300,000 was spent in 2013-2014 that could be identified as consulting. In more recent years, the ministry has turned mainly to the California-based National Council on Crime and Delinquency for strategic analysis and management models, as well as McNair Business Development. Additionally, Price Waterhouse Cooper, which holds a Lean implementation contract for the provinces, has been working with Social Services.

Consultants for the two-year period of 2012 to 2014 included:

• National Council on Crime and Delinquency (research, organizational strategies, $501,688)
• McNair Business Development (organizational strategies, $313,099)
• David Anderson Consulting ($180,990)
• Price Waterhouse Cooper (Has lean implementation contract, $60,019)

2005-2006

2013-2014

 Social Services downloadable data spreadsheet (Excel file)