Hussen spent $93k constituency funds on PR help from foodie firm Munch More Media | 24CA News

Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen used $93,050 in constituency funds for public relations assist from a foodie communications agency with a connection to a former senior staffer, public data present.

House of Commons guidelines allow MPs to make use of constituency funds for skilled communications work, however Hussen is certainly one of only a handful of cupboard ministers who spent a big quantity on public relations contracts over the previous three years.

The agency that carried out the work, Munch More Media, marketed itself as a advertising and marketing company specializing within the meals {industry}, working with “food companies, chefs, food bloggers and restaurants to kitchen equipment and hardware.”

Munch More’s web site was taken down earlier than Global News approached them with questions on their political work however remained accessible by an web archive service.

In all, Munch More Media has obtained $93,050 over 14 contracts from Hussen’s workplace between July 2020 and September 2022, in accordance with House of Commons expense figures.

The firm seems to have a minimal social media presence, with accounts of their identify having only one follower on Twitter and 862 on Instagram — with their most up-to-date posts showing to have been made in 2018.

Of the 20 accounts the Munch More account adopted on Instagram as of Wednesday afternoon, 19 have been restaurant or food-industry associated. The different was Hussen’s official account. By Wednesday night time, nonetheless, the Instagram profile didn’t comply with any accounts.

Hiba Tariq, listed because the director of Munch More Media Inc., informed Global News that she had no private reference to Hussen previous to doing constituency communications for the Housing, Diversity and Inclusion minister.

“Yes, many of my clients are in the food industry but strong communications share common features,” Tariq stated.

Tariq later acknowledged that she knew Abdikhier Ahmed, Hussen’s former director of coverage.

“I knew Abdikhier prior to him joining Minister Hussen’s office from a community activist perspective. Him being hired as Minister Hussen’s director of policy is independent from me and has no relation to me,” Tariq wrote in an emailed assertion.

Tariq and Ahmed are listed as co-directors of an organization known as “Empire of Goodness,” which is registered in Vaughan, Ont.. In an e-mail, Ahmed confirmed he labored for Hussen as director of coverage in 2020 and he works with Tariq at Empire of Goodness, which he described as a non-profit group the place he serves as a volunteer director on the board.

“I have never received any contracts from Minister Hussen’s parliamentary or constituency office before or after my time with his office,” Ahmed wrote in response to Global’s questions.

“I have never had any relationship with Munch More Media Inc. and I have never received any payment from this company.”

Hussen declined Global’s interview request on Tuesday. But in a press release, the minister’s workplace stated that each one House of Commons guidelines have been adopted in awarding the contracts.

“Munch More Media is a local, small-scale communications firm from Toronto that provides their communications expertise across the city. Under the House of Commons, members of parliament are permitted to expense a communications firm to carry out ways of communicating information to their constituents,” wrote Hussen spokesperson Brittany Hendrych in a press release.

“These rules were followed and the contracting to Munch More Media was publicly disclosed.”

Hussen is certainly one of simply three cupboard members who used important constituency funds for PR work during the last three years, in accordance with public monetary disclosures reviewed by Global News.

Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan paid out roughly $51,000 in constituency funds since 2020 for communications assist from John Whelan, which included speech writing, strategic recommendation and different work.

“Mr. Whelan brings strong experience to this role, having contracted his services to other politicians and corporations throughout his career. All House of Commons regulations and rules have been followed in this process, and Minister O’Regan’s office continues to proactively disclose all compensation for Mr. Whelan’s services,” wrote Jane Deeks, a spokesperson for O’Regan, in a press release.

Filomena Tassi, the minister liable for the Federal Economic Development Agency of Southern Ontario, spent at the very least $91,000 over that very same interval on 24 contracts with Regnum Communications. Regnum is a communications agency led by Alex Sévigny, a director of McMaster University’s MCM Research Lab.

“The two did not know each other prior to her foray into politics, and she has followed all House of Commons rules in relation to this contract,” Tassi’s press secretary Edward Hutchinson wrote in an e-mail.

Cabinet ministers’ outsourcing of communications assist made headlines not too long ago after Mary Ng, the federal commerce minister, apologized for breaking ethics guidelines in awarding a contract to a private pal.

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion present in December that Ng’s resolution to award a $17,000 contract to Pomp and Circumstance, a communications agency run by Ng’s pal and Liberal commentator Amanda Alvaro, broke ethics guidelines.

“There is simply no excuse for contracting with a friend’s company,” Dion stated in a press release.

Ng subsequently apologized within the House of Commons, and stated she ought to have recused herself from the choice.

There isn’t any indication that the contracts awarded by Hussen, O’Regan or Tassi violate House of Commons or ethics guidelines — in contrast to the contract to Alvaro, which used ministerial workplace cash slightly than constituency funds.

Nor are the Liberal ministers the one high-profile federal politicians to spend constituency cash on communications assist. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spent $16,075 to pay for a constituency communications officer in between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2022, which is the latest quarter constituency monetary disclosures are publicly accessible.

Hussen confronted scrutiny final August over $133,000 in grant cash given to a corporation whose senior marketing consultant Laith Marouf had tweeted about “Jewish white supremacists.” The messages, which surfaced as screenshots from Marouf’s non-public Twitter account, have been decried as antisemitic, and Hussen moved to chop their funding.

— with recordsdata from the Canadian Press.