Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Jagmeet Singh might want to give his own brother a call if he has an issue with grocery store lobbyists.
Poilievre has asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to support an investigation into the lobbying activities of Jagmeet’s brother, Gurratan Singh, for being the vice-president of a firm that lobbies for the grocery chain Metro.
This comes after Jagmeet Singh has accused the Conservatives of cozying up with grocery lobbyists.
During Question Period on Wednesday, Poilievre addressed a previous question raised by the leader of the NDP.
“The prime minister is giving $25 million to Loblaws and Costco when they’re making record profits. What’s it going to take for this prime minister to understand? These big grocery chains are raking in billions. They really don’t need the handouts,” Jagmeet said.
Poilievre noted that the Trudeau government could only give handouts to the grocery industry because of NDP support. He questioned if Jagmeet’s close ties to a grocery lobbying group were a conflict of interest.
“Not a single penny of that money could have gone without the vote of the NDP coalition partner,” Poilievre said. “But we learned something else: This might have been due to the influence of the NDP leader’s spokesman and brother, whose company is a lobbyist for Metro.”
The NDP leader has frequently accused Poilievre of being beholden to grocery store lobbyists.
The leader of the NDP’s brother, Gurratan, was hired as vice-president at Toronto-based Crestview Strategy last May.
Gurratan’s profile on the company’s website promotes his former work as MPP for the riding of Brampton East in the Ontario legislature and his experience and knowledge in dealing with government, community, and labour union leaders.
When Poilievre asked Trudeau in the House of Commons to support an investigation into whether or not Jagmeet’s “spokesman and brother has been unduly influencing the leader of the NDP,” Trudeau claimed it was Poilievre who had the lobbyist problem.
“We can see very clearly that all the stories out about the lobbyists’ connections with the leader of the opposition are actually hurting (Poilievre), which is why he’s asking this question to the NDP,” Trudeau said.
Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, saying that Gurratan was not registered as a lobbyist, which he stated would breach theLobbyists Code of Conduct.
The letter questions whether there are communications between the two brothers that would require Gurratan to register as a consultant lobbyist.
A look into the transcripts of the House of Commons shows that Jagmeet only mentioned Loblaws twice in 2022. But after his brother was hired, Jagmeet mentioned the grocery giant five times in 2023 and nine times in the first five months of 2024, Barrett noted.
In contrast, Jagmeet mentioned Metro on four separate occasions since his Gurratan was hired by Crestview: in three out of four, Loblaws was mentioned in the same statement.
According to the Lobbyist Registry, Jagmeet met with lobbyists 39 times over the last 12 months. The meeting registrations did not mention Metro.
This comes days after Singh criticized the opposition leader for meeting with lobbyists.
Poilievre called on corporate leaders to “fire lobbyists” in an open letter last week, though the registry of lobbyists shows Poilievre has met with lobby groups 29 times over the last year. However, not all of the groups are corporate.
He said business leaders relying on “their useless and overpaid lobbyists” to meet Chrystia Freeland or Trudeau, hoping they can convince them while the Conservatives fight them in the House of Commons, “just won’t cut it.”
Crestview Strategy also lobbied for Rogers, along with other groups and corporations. Singh has attacked Rogers in the past for its high prices and lack of competition in the market.
