Tories grill Liberals in question period about minister’s ties to lobbyist, PPE company

Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault faced heated remarks from Conservative MPs in the House of Commons Thursday about Global News’ reporting into his business activities.

Tory MP Michael Barrett, who is a member of the ethics committee, asked Boissonnault why he is receiving “outstanding” payments from a lobbying firm owned by a longtime business associate and former employee, according to the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner’s registry.

“The minister was caught cashing checks from a lobbying firm that was lobbying his own government,” Barrett said. “His own ministry!”

Earlier this week, Global News published two investigations that found the Edmonton Centre MP had ties to a lobbyist who went on to help her client win $110 million in federal grants and a personal protective equipment company that was awarded $8.2 million in provincial and municipal contracts.

The lobbyist, Kirsten Poon, who owns the consulting firm Navis Group, met with high-level political staff across the federal government, including Finance Canada, where Boissonnault was also associate minister.

“Minister Boissonnault has not been involved with any of Ms. Poon’s lobbying activities,” said Alice Hansen, Boissonnault’s director of communications, “and all necessary steps have been taken to avoid any conflict of interest.”

Hansen pointed out that the federal funds “were not awarded by any departments reporting to Minister Boissonnault and he had no part in any of the approval processes for those grants.”

While Boissonnault did not respond to comments directed at him in the House of Commons, his office told Global News in a previous statement that the funds Boissonnault received from Poon’s firm are long-delayed payments from his consulting work