Ottawa suspends all contracts with MP Randy Boissonnault’s ex-firm

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OTTAWA — The federal government has temporarily blacklisted the medical supplies firm co-founded by non-Indigenous Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault following revelations that it bid on government contracts while improperly claiming to be “wholly” Indigenous-owned.

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In a statement, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) announced Tuesday that it had suspended Global Health Imports (GHI) from bidding on or receiving federal contracts while it investigates the firm. The claims had led to an unravelling of conflicting claims made by Boissonnault over the years about his heritage, leading to his resignation from cabinet last week.

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“The suspension will last for a period of 90 days and may be extended as necessary until a final decision” whether GHI should be added to its list of ineligible or suspended suppliers, reads the statement.

GHI’s only active government contract, with Elections Canada, was ordered stopped on Nov. 20, the same day Boissonnault resigned as the federal minister of employment.

“Elections Canada has confirmed that no deliverables have been received and no payments have been made against the contract,” reads PSPC’s statement, which notes that the contract did not include an “Indigenous set-aside requirement.”

Catherine Poulin, PSPC’s assistant deputy minister responsible for oversight, told a Commons committee Tuesday that GHI’s suspension was tied to ongoing civil and criminal allegations made against the company.

A statement by the Edmonton Police Service last week confirming it was investigating fraud allegations against GHI and Anderson also tipped the scales for PSPC, Poulin said.

“We have gone through multiple sources of information, including lawsuits both civil and criminal, and the information that has been brought to our attention recently concerning an Edmonton Police Service investigation… put us at the right level of threshold to take action,” she told MPs on the government operations committee.

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GHI’s suspension comes just weeks after the National Post revealed that GHI had twice bid for federal government medical supply contracts in 2020 while declaring itself “a wholly owned Indigenous and LGBTQ Company” and “Aboriginal.”

Yet around the same time as the bid, Boissonnault said in an interview that he was “white.” He also claimed repeatedly for years in the House of Commons that he was “non-status adopted Cree.” Most recently, he said he was adopted into a Metis family.

Speaking to MPs, Poulin said GHI’s representations in its bids for federal contracts are part of PSPC’s investigation.

“It will form one of factors that will be looked at by the determination team while finalizing the assessment of GHI,” she said.

Boissonnault co-founded GHI just weeks after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, with former business partner Stephen Anderson, to sell personal protective equipment. He said he quit the company when he was re-elected to Parliament in 2021 but only sold his shares in GHI this summer.

Boissonnault’s claim that he quit operations of the company when he was appointed to cabinet in 2021 are also under scrutiny after multiple text messages from Anderson mentioning discussions with “Randy” in 2022 emerged in various lawsuits and Commons committee probes.

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Anderson did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Asked about GHI’s claim that it was wholly Indigenous owned while applying for federal contracts, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said there are many people falsely claiming to be Indigenous in order to profit from the “small piece of pie” reserved for First Nations.

“There’s too many pretendians out there,” she said, using the term referring to people who fake Indigenous heritage. “It’s something that hurts First Nations … It’s harmful to small First Nations businesses out there that are trying their best to work on a contract and they’re pushed out by people that shouldn’t have been eligible to begin with.”

The national chief called on the government to put in place a better system of verifying a company’s Indigenous links before granting it priority access to certain federal contracts.

She also criticized certain parliamentary committees, which are either completely or mainly composed of non-Indigenous MPs, for debating who is or isn’t Indigenous on behalf of First Nations, Metis and Inuit nations.

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“If the House of Commons wants to talk about identity, it shouldn’t be a bunch of parliamentarians that are not First Nation talking about that. It needs to be First Nations people that are developing those membership codes,” she said.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

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