Trudeau defends Boissonnault amid indigenous claims saga

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared in Parliament todaya Village Media newsletter dedicated to covering federal politics from Parliament Hill.

Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu has admitted one of her cabinet colleagues “may” be involved in a case of fraudulently claiming Indigenous ancestry to win government contracts.

Hajdu made the comments on Tuesday’s government operations committee, where she was peppered with questions about allegations that Labor Secretary Randy Boissonnault misrepresented his family’s indigenous ties.

Following reporting by National PostBoissonnault PASSED his adoptive great-grandmother was not Cree, as he initially claimed for years, but rather of Metis descent. The Liberals often presented Boissonnault as an MP in touch with indigenous needs, with the minister also making frequent references to his great-grandmother’s ancestors.

The revelation came after he apologized last week for not being as “clear” about his past, prompting Tories to call for his resignation or removal from cabinet.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dismissed those calls, saying he’s “happy” Boissonnault remains on the job.

“The issue of identity is an extremely delicate one that the federal government has to weigh,” Trudeau said Tuesday, stressing the need for communities to make such “determinations” themselves.

The work, Hajdu explained, is ongoing, although she admitted under pressure from conservatives that the case may involve fraud.

“It could be, but that would be a decision of the Office of Supplier Integrity and Compliance. I don’t run that particular organization,” she said.

“When there are allegations of fraud, it is very serious and departments have a responsibility to ensure they are purchasing from companies that are not fraudulent.”

“Cleaning” is done every two years

The fraud allegation relates to Global Health Imports (GHI), a company Boissonnault co-founded with Stephen Anderson, which presented it seems is a “fully Indigenous-owned” firm in unsuccessful bids for federal contracts in 2020.

Boissonnault said Anderson made “false representations” without his knowledge and has since tried to distance himself from him.

Hajdu pointed out that GHI was never included in his department’s Indigenous Business Directory (IBD), which the government relies on to issue contracts to indigenous firms, with the goal of awarding at least five percent of all government contracts to companies indigenous in 2024. -25.

Questions about that director’s integrity have swirled for months amid concerns that some firms are falsely claiming to be indigenous to gain access to federal cash.

Hajdu explained that IBD is audited every two years, with 1,100 companies removed in 2022 for non-compliance or other non-fraud reasons. As of December 2023, two companies have been removed from “pre-award” audits with a “number of post-award audits ongoing”, although Hajdu did not elaborate.

To verify that the registration is valid, officials may request documents related to Indian registration in Canada, multi-community citizenship, or other records.

Achieving a “balance”

Ultimately, Ottawa wants to shift responsibility for maintaining that list to Indigenous communities, a process that NDP MP Rachel Blaney has argued cannot be completed soon enough.

“Talk about getting out. When?” Blaney pressed.

Indigenous Services Canada’s director general of economic policy development, Jessica Sultan, said the feds have been consulting on the issue since 2021 and that work is scheduled to wrap up in 2025-26.

At that time, Ottawa plans to determine “next steps” with IBD and the global Indigenous procurement strategy from this feedback.

Hajdu said the goal is to “have something in place by 2025,” but did not say exactly when or what that would entail.

“I am in conversations with the partners themselves, who all agree that as soon as possible they would like to manage the list,” she said.

“But they all agree that they don’t want a dilution of buy-in from indigenous businesses, so that’s the balance we’re trying to strike.”