Federal minister’s ties to lobbyist raise ethical concerns

A lobbyist with business ties to federal cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault met with high-level political staff in six federal departments, including one where Boissonnault was also associate minister, a Global News investigation has found.

The meetings, which took place in 2021 and 2022, helped raise $110 million in federal grants for Edmonton International Airport.

Now serving as employment minister, Boissonnault is the only Liberal cabinet member from Alberta. The Edmonton Centre MP’s riding is one of the party’s two footholds in the province.

After he won the September 2021 election and was named tourism minister and associate finance minister, Boissonault began winding down his small consulting business, Xennex Venture Catalysts, which he ran out of his home.

As is legally required of elected officials, Boissonnault handed over control and the remaining administrative duties to Kirsten Poon, his friend and business associate. Poon had worked as a lobbyist for Xennex.

The company “ceased day-to-day operations,” according to his spokeswoman, Alice Hansen.

“Minister Boissonnault always met all of his conflict of interest and ethics obligations as a public office holder,” Hansen told Global News.

Poon, who had no prior experience with federal lobbying before working for Xennex, transferred the company’s sole registered client, Edmonton Regional Airports Authority, to her own small business, Navis Group.

As Boissonnault assumed his ministerial duties, Poon resumed lobbying.

In legally-mandated public disclosures listing his possible conflicts of interest, Boissonnault posted the legal name for Poon’s consultancy, 2050877 Alberta Ltd.

He did not, however, disclose its trade name, Navis Group.

The connection between the two entities