Evidence of meeting #125 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was anderson.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you confirm again that you did not in any way leverage your relationship with the minister to get those meetings?
As an Individual
I have never leveraged my relationship or connection to Minister Boissonnault to set up meetings.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
As far as you know, to your knowledge did Mr. Boissonnault work fully with the Ethics Commissioner to arrange his business affairs after re-election, as the Ethics Commissioner said?
As an Individual
Yes, the minister regularly and thoroughly reports all his activities to the Ethics Commissioner, and he does this every year. He also did, from the very beginning, let the Ethics Commissioner know that I was registered as a lobbyist.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you confirm that your professional relationship with EIA predated its relationship with Minister Boissonnault?
As an Individual
Yes. I started working with the airport in 2018, which predates any relationship or work the minister has done with the airport.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
As was noted, during the time you were representing Edmonton International Airport, it received several grants from the federal government. Can you confirm that none of these grants came from departments that Minister Boissonnault was in charge of?
As an Individual
The minister has never been part of the approval of any grants awarded to the Edmonton International Airport. No departments reporting to Minister Boissonnault have been involved with any of the grants related to the airport, and neither he nor his staff have ever been in any of the approval processes related to the airport.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you confirm that, during the time you worked together between 2019 and 2021, Minister Boissonnault did not participate in any lobbying activity, and never sat in on or arranged meetings with government officials at all during that period?
As an Individual
The minister was never involved in any lobbying activity and never sat in on any meetings with officials.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you confirm that you hadn't met Mr. Anderson before today and that you have no insight into the operations of the company Global Health Imports?
As an Individual
Yes. I've never met Mr. Anderson or spoken to Mr. Anderson. I have no insight into any of the operations of Global Health Imports.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Ms. Poon, some members of this committee have expressed concern about Minister Boissonnault's use of the legal name of your company in his ethics disclosure versus the trade name Navis Group. Can you talk a bit about that?
I understand you changed the name of your company to Navis after Minister Boissonnault's re-election. Can you give us the lowdown on the timeline of that?
As an Individual
Yes. Actually, this is an important question, and it's one I would like to clarify.
When Minister Boissonnault and I worked together when he was a private citizen, I only used the numbered company as my legal name. My understanding is that when he makes his disclosures, he is supposed to register the legal name. I did not register the trade name until November 2021, which was after his re-election.
I did not tell the minister that I had registered that as my trade name, because I did not feel like that was information relevant to him. I registered the trade name to meet my requirements as a consultant lobbyist. That is also something I would certainly not have told him, as it related to my lobbying activity.
I don't think the minister actually knew about the trade name until a couple of months ago.
My understanding from the beginning was that he was required to disclose the legal name of my company, which is my numbered company name.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you for that clarity.
Much has been made about the fact that you were able to get meetings with officials. However, a significant reason for those meetings is that you were representing EIA. Is that true?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
That's okay. Thank you.
We're out of time, Mr. Fisher.
Next up is Mr. Villemure. He'll be speaking in French, so I would like to advise all witnesses that they'll need to put on their earpieces if they want to hear the interpretation.
Mr. Villemure, you have six minutes.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for that introduction and for the caveat that I'll be speaking in French.
For the benefit of the witnesses, I would like to point out that the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics is responsible for reviewing certain actions by elected officials. It's important to know that this isn't a court of law and that you aren't charged with anything. On the contrary, we're looking for information in response to a motion adopted by the committee. This committee does not replace the Ethics Commissioner either. These are different things.
Mr. Anderson, what is your relationship with Minister Randy Boissonnault?
As an Individual
Minister Boissonnault and I had met in 2019. That was our first time meeting. We started a business together. It was during COVID-19. We haven't had any interaction since.... I think a handful of times, six or seven times, we have communicated. We haven't met in person since he was elected back to office.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Thank you very much.
How do you know Mr. Boissonnault? Were you friends? Did you have any mutual friends? Were you members of the same business circle?
As an Individual
No, I wouldn't classify Mr. Boissonnault as a friend. We actually met on an airplane from Montreal flying back to Edmonton.
Bloc
René Villemure Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Okay, thank you.
You know as well as we do that the Ethics Commissioner chose not to pursue this investigation into the allegations of conflict of interest. What do you think of the Commissioner's decision?
As an Individual
I support the decision. I am aware now, yes, since it has come out in the news cycle. I completely agree for the simple reason that we didn't have any communication and we haven't communicated with regard to business relationships since the end of 2021, the September prior to the election.