Housing Minister Ahmed Hussain used $93,050 in constituency funds for public relations assistance from a former senior employee, a foodie communications firm with connections to public records show.
House of Commons rules allow MPs to use constituency funds for professional communications work, but Hussain is one of a handful of cabinet ministers to have spent a significant amount of money on public relations contracts over the past three years.
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The working firm, Munch More Media, advertised itself as a marketing agency specializing in the food industry, working with “everything from food companies, chefs, food bloggers and restaurants to kitchen equipment and hardware”.
Munch More’s website was taken down before being contacted by Global News with questions about his political work, but remains accessible through an Internet archive service.
Between July 2020 and September 2022, Munch More Media received $93,050 on 14 contracts from Hussain’s office, according to House of Commons expenditure data.
The company appears to have a minimal social media presence, with accounts to their name consisting of just one follower on Twitter and 862 on Instagram – their most recent posts appearing in 2018.
Of the 20 accounts that the Munch More account followed on Instagram as of Wednesday afternoon, 19 were related to restaurants or the food-industry. The second was Hussain’s official account. However, as of Wednesday night, the Instagram profile did not follow any of the accounts.
Hiba Tariq, listed as a director of Munch More Media Inc., told Global News that she had no personal relationship with Hussain prior to doing constituency communications for the Minister of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion.
“Yes, many of my clients are in the food industry, but strong communication shares common characteristics,” Tariq said.
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Tariq later admitted that she knew Abdikhier Ahmed, Hussein’s former policy director.
“I knew Abdikhier before joining Minister Hussein’s office from a community worker perspective. His hiring as Minister Hussein’s policy director is independent of me and has nothing to do with me,” Tariq said in an email. Wrote in the statement.
Tariq and Ahmad are listed as co-directors of a corporation called “Empire of Goodness”, which is registered in Vaughan, Ontario. In an email, Ahmed confirmed that he served as policy director for Hussain in 2020 and that he works with Tariq. Empire of Goodness, which he described as a non-profit organization where he serves on the board as a volunteer director.
In response to Global’s questions, Ahmed wrote, “I have not received any contract from Minister Hussein’s parliamentary or constituency office before or after his office.”
“I have never had any association with Forum More Media Inc. and have never received any payment from this company.”
Hussain declined Global’s request for an interview on Tuesday. But in a statement the minister’s office said all House of Commons rules were followed in awarding the contracts.
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“Forum More Media is a local, small-scale communications firm in Toronto that provides its communications expertise throughout the city. Under the House of Commons, Members of Parliament are required to work out ways to communicate information to their constituents. The communications firm is allowed to spend,” Hussein’s spokeswoman, Brittany Hendrich, wrote in a statement.
“These terms were followed and the contract was publicly disclosed to Munch More Media.”
According to public financial disclosures reviewed by Global News, Hussain is one of just three cabinet members who have used significant constituency funds for PR work over the past three years.
Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan paid nearly $51,000 into constituency funds over 2020 for communications support for John Whelan, including speechwriting, strategic advice and other work.
“Mr. Whelan brings strong experience to this role, having offered his services to other politicians and corporations throughout his career. The process followed all rules and regulations of the House of Commons, and Minister O’Regan office continues to actively disclose all compensation for Mr. Whelan’s services,” O’Regan spokeswoman Jane Deeks wrote in a statement.
Philomena Tassi, the minister responsible for the federal economic development agency for Southern Ontario, spent at least $91,000 over the same period on 24 contracts with Regnum Communications. Regnum is a communications firm led by Alex Sevigny, director of McMaster University’s MCM Research Lab.
Tasi’s press secretary, Edward Hutchinson, wrote in an email: “The two did not know each other before joining politics, and have followed all House of Commons rules regarding this contract.”
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The outsourcing of communications support by cabinet ministers recently made headlines when Mary Ng, the federal trade minister, apologized for breaking ethics rules in awarding a contract to a personal friend.
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion found in december Ng’s decision to award the $17,000 contract to Pomp & Circumstances, a communications firm run by Ng’s friend and Liberal commentator Amanda Alvaro, broke ethics rules.
“There’s no excuse for signing a contract with a friend’s company,” Dion said in a statement.
Ng later apologized in the House of Commons, saying that he should have recused himself from the decision.
There is no indication that the contracts awarded by Hussain, O’Regan or Tassi violated House of Commons or ethics rules – unlike Alvaro’s contract, which used ministerial money rather than constituency money Was.
Nor is the Liberal minister the only high-profile federal politician to spend constituency money on communications aid. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spent $16,075 to pay a constituency communications officer between July 1 and September 30, 2022, the most recent quarter of constituency financial disclosures that are publicly available.
Hussein faced an investigation last August over $133,000 in grant money to an organization whose senior adviser, Laith Marouf, tweeted about “Jewish white supremacists.” The message, which appeared to be a screenshot from Marouf’s personal Twitter account, was decried as anti-Semitic, and Hussein cut its funding.
With files from The Canadian Press,