Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault says the ethics commissioner has concluded he broke no rules after three probes into allegations he was involved in business dealings while in cabinet. He adds that he regrets his association with his former business partner.
“While I have always followed my ethical obligations, it is clear in hindsight that this is not an individual whose actions and choices I would want reflecting on me,” Boissonnault told the House of Commons Ethics Committee on
Sept. 19.
Boissonnault said that, with the “benefit of hindsight,” he would not have gone into business with Stephen Anderson. The two co-founded medical supply company Global Health Imports Corporation (GHI) in early 2020 after Boissonnault lost his
Edmonton Centre seat in the September 2019 election. He won back his seat in September 2021 and was appointed to cabinet in October that year.
The minister said he had no operational role in GHI since being re-elected and called for Anderson to be forthright with the committee about the facts surrounding the text messages he sent in September 2022 referring to someone named “Randy.” He said Anderson “should give that person’s true name to this committee.”
Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein first launched an investigation into Boissonnault’s business dealings after Global News reported in
May that he remained listed as a director of GHI 16 months after his re-election.
Boissonnault has said he was a partner at GHI until his re-election in September 2021, at which point he resigned from the company, as required by federal ethics laws for cabinet ministers. He said he had asked Anderson to update the federal and provincial business registries, but that was not done.
He remained a 50 percent shareholder until recently, as ministers are allowed to own shares in private companies, just not to have a role in managing or operating businesses.
The ethics commissioner’s second preliminary probe came in
June, after Global News reported that Anderson had sent text messages to a client on Sept. 8, 2022, in which he referred to “Randy” asking him for a “partner call.” Anderson told the Ethics Committee on
July 17 that his phone had auto-corrected the name to “Randy” several times by mistake, when the texts were actually referring to another individual working for the company.
The ethics commissioner decided not to launch a formal investigation following both preliminary probes.
The third ethics probe was launched in
August, after new text messages from Sept. 6, 2022, emerged that showed Anderson communicating with the same client and mentioning he had updated “Randy” about a business deal. One of messages said “Randy” will have a “partner vote” on the deal. Another said “Randy” was “in the Vancouver office,” which appears to line up with Boissonnault’s trip to the city for a cabinet retreat at the time.
Following that probe, the ethics commissioner said he considers the matter closed after finding no evidence Boissonnault was involved in a business deal while in cabinet, Global News reported on
Sept. 19, citing a letter from the commissioner obtained by the outlet.
Opposition Questions
Under questioning from Conservative MP Michael Barrett, Boissonnault said he had a one-minute phone call with Anderson on Sept. 6, 2022, after receiving a voicemail from Purolator requesting an account settlement. Boissonnault said he no longer had an operational role at GHI at the time but Purolator still had his number and called him after being unable to reach GHI. He said he merely contacted Anderson so Anderson could settle the account.
“You’re expecting us to believe that you are dealing with your business partner on accounts payable, but you’re not dealing with him on accounts receivable?” Barrett responded, saying it was “far too incredible for anyone to believe.”
Bloc Quebecois MP René Villemure asked Boissonnault who the other “Randy” referenced in the texts was. Boissonnault said Anderson was either communicating with someone with the same name or “maybe without my knowledge, he was using my name to make his business work.”
Conservative MP Michael Cooper raised the issue that Boissonnault never mentioned his call with Anderson during a previous committee appearance. “It is a material misrepresentation. Why didn’t you tell the full truth the last time you appeared before the committee?” he asked.
Boissonnault reiterated that he had provided all his text messages and call logs to the ethics commissioner and that he wasn’t involved with the company while in office.
Anderson had previously told Global News his texts weren’t referring to Boissonnault but to a different person named Randy working at the company at the time, the outlet reported in
June.However, during committee
testimony in July. Anderson said he had “panicked” while talking to the reporter and had lied. He testified that “Randy” in the texts was the result of his phone’s autocorrection function and that he was actually referring to a woman at the company, whom he did not name.
Boissonnault told Cooper that if his allegations were true, “the ethics commissioner would have seen, in an exhaustive evaluation of all the text messages on all of the telephones that I have on all platforms, that those text messages existed.”
“They do not. I am not the Randy in question. The ethics commissioner has said so, and he considers this case closed,” Boissonnault said.
