Two companies within Foundever Group found supporting Russian troops at Ukranian frontline
By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Daily Gleaner
In 2023, the French national newspaper La Monde published an investigation into two companies belonging to the Mulliez family (Auchan and Leroy Merlin) that were supporting Russia’s army by supplying its troops stationed along the Ukrainian front line.
A day after the Holt government in New Brunswick was roundly criticized for signing a contract with a company on shaky financial footing, it is being assailed for the firm’s ties with Vladimir Putin’s military invasion of Ukraine.
Following a request for proposals that involved 11 bidders, the Liberal government signed a deal on Wednesday with the international firm Foundever to replace eVisitNB, the local business that’s provided New Brunswickers with a virtual health-care platform since 2022, allowing them to consult with a doctor or nurse practitioner by phone, text or video.
The Progressive Conservative opposition was livid about the decision, citing a research note published by the global credit rating agency S&P on Dec. 18 stating that Foundever was in danger of defaulting on its debts.
On Thursday, the Tories renewed their attack during question period.
“New Brunswickers are people with integrity, morals, and a true sense of what is right and wrong in this world, and some things do not get any simpler than being against invading another nation’s sovereignty, murdering its people, and attempting for years to overthrow its democratically elected government and occupy its territory,” said Glen Savoie, leader of the Official Opposition.
“New Brunswickers do not want to see their money go toward a company whose owners support the terroristic actions of the Russian state against the people of Ukraine. Will the premier do the only right thing she can do in this situation and cancel this deal with Foundever?”
Premier Susan Holt described the Tory leader’s criticism as hypocritical. Foundever runs the toll-free 811 service that connects New Brunswick patients to registered nurses, a service that’s been available in one form or another for 28 years.
“This is a question, Madam Speaker, that the member opposite should have asked his former boss,” Holt said, referring to former Premier Blaine Higgs. “Information about the connection between this family and the Russians came out in 2023, when the previous government was already in business with Foundever. What did it do about it? It did nothing, because this is a company that has people in New Brunswick delivering excellent health-care services to the people of New Brunswick.”
Foundever is a large private company that generated $3.6 billion in revenue in 2024 alone. It has 150,000 employees working worldwide, offering services in 45 countries.
Its headquarters are in Luxembourg, but it’s owned by the French Mulliez family, known for their vast retail holdings and one of the richest families in Europe.
Two of the company’s brands, Auchan and Leroy Merlin, were implicated in an investigation in 2023 by the French newspaper Le Monde, the Russian website The Insider and a former director at Bellingcat, the independent international collective of citizen journalists specializing in open-source research.
The investigation showed that goods sold by two companies belonging to the Mulliez Group were supplied to the Russian armed forces on the Ukrainian front with tools, clothing and cigarettes.
Since Putin, the autocratic Russian president, ordered the invasion four years ago, an estimated 400,000 Ukrainians have been wounded or died, and there have been about 1.2 million Russian casualties.
That’s the equivalent of New Brunswick’s entire population maimed or killed, twice over.
The contract for eVisitNB was set to expire in April, but it has been extended till July 1, when Foundever will take over, with a new platform. Health Minister John Dornan has promised a seamless transition for New Brunswick patients.
The Tories say the eVisitNB contract should simply have been extended, without a bidding process. The former Progressive Conservative government accepted the platform offered by eVisitNB in 2022 without a tendering process.
It was the brainchild of Woodstock ER Dr. Hanif Chatur and Stanley family physician Jonathan Clayton, who were trying to connect with patients during the pandemic, when people feared spreading the dangerous coronavirus. Both the Woodstock and Stanley areas are Tory strongholds.
Aaron Kennedy, the minister responsible for Service New Brunswick, took questions from reporters after question period.
He said an in-depth analysis had been done by Service New Brunswick, along with the Department of Health, before deciding on Foundever.
“There were signings with the previous government. There were never any red flags raised then. I can only assume that they did all the due diligence that one would expect from a government of the day, and I’m sure they did. And there were no red flags, so through our procurement process, they were deemed to be able to continue to provide services to New Brunswickers in a different way. We thought that was the best deal that was received on those 11.”
Asked how he personally felt, knowing there were ties to the company with a family that had profited from the war in Ukraine, Kennedy said he could understand the concerns.
“Those procurements come through my office. There are many of them that hit my desk through the course of days and weeks and months, so I obviously ask questions whenever I see something that causes me to pause, and there were many questions that were asked on this file, and I’m confident in the work that the Department of Health did, and I’m certainly confident in the work that Service New Brunswick did, and ensuring we got the best deal for New Brunswickers.”
