Elections Canada is blaming an “internal error” on their seven-month delay in publishing a federal contract that benefited Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault.

Boissonnault has faced criticism from opposition MPs since June after they discovered his potential involvement with Global Health Imports (GHI), a company he previously co-owned while serving as a Minister.

In January, GHI secured a contract worth $28,000 for providing disposable gloves to Elections Canada. At the time, Boissonnault maintained a 50% ownership in GHI. 

However, Elections Canada didn’t post the contract until recently, making the conflict of interest virtually impossible to detect. Conflict of interest regulations prevent ministers from benefiting from federal contracts through their private interests.

Since June, opposition MPs have been looking into whether Boissonnault violated these regulations by investigating his potential involvement in the company while serving as Minister.

Both Boissonnault and Stephen Anderson, his partner in founding GHI, have appeared before the ethics committee to address allegations. These were based on uncovered messages from Anderson in 2022 that mentioned dealings with an individual referred to only as “Randy.” 

Co-Owner admits he lied

Anderson originally lied to Global News, claiming that there was another individual named Randy who managed logistics at GHI.

During an ethics committee probe in July, Anderson admitted he lied, and claimed there was no “Randy.” Anderson said that when he texted “Randy” eight times, he wasn’t referring to Randy Boissonnault—or any Randy—and that each instance was an autocorrect error.

“Every one of those nine (instances) is an autocorrect?” asked Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett. “Yes,” replied Anderson. 

Both Anderson and Boissonnault have maintained that their business relationship ended in September 2021 when Boissonnault won his Edmonton seat.