Mr. Chair, we've heard in Global News reports about Minister Randy Boissonnault. These reports have raised concerns with respect to Minister Boissonnault's involvement with Navis Group, which has lobbied the government—the government for which he is a minister. He received payments from that company during his time.
This, of course, raises questions under the Lobbying Act and the Conflict of Interest Act.
With respect to Global Health Imports, this is a company that Minister Randy Boissonnault co-founded. He owns 50% of the company through an Alberta numbered company that he wholly owns. In his evidence at the last committee meeting, he offered that he believed that Stephen Anderson, his partner, is the only other shareholder in that company and that they are, in fact, partners.
Global News this past week released text messages that refer to a “Randy” in the decision to solicit a $500,000 wire transfer. This is now the subject of court proceedings. There are questions about fraud and wire fraud. The minister asserted to the committee that at this small company that he co-founded, in spite of the fact that in these text messages there's talk of a “partner call” and “Randy”, it's another Randy and he is not that Randy at the company.
It's important, then. We had the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner here, who testified that, in spite of having sent a letter previously saying that an investigation wouldn't be pursued, new concerns and new questions had been raised and he would examine the matter and then undertake a self-initiated investigation, should that need to occur.
The lobbying commissioner is reviewing the matter. Of course, due to the potential for Criminal Code violations and Lobbying Act violations, the RCMP will have to review the issue to see if criminal charges need to be pursued.
This motion is germane to the work the committee undertook at the last meeting. I think we were all surprised by the reports in Global News.
I think that having these witnesses come forward to get clarity and provide Canadians with assurances that all of the rules have been followed, specifically the ones whose commissioners fall under the purview of this committee—the lobbying commissioner and the Ethics Commissioner—with respect to the Lobbying Act, the Conflict of Interest Act and the conflict of interest code for members.
If rules haven't been followed, then the committee and Canadians would be aware of that and look forward to the expeditious passing of this motion so that we can get transparency for Canadians.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.