QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Canada Border Services Agency
October 5, 2023
My question is for the government leader in the Senate.
Senator Gold, yesterday we learned that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is investigating the outsourcing of a Canada Border Services Agency contract involving the same companies at the centre of the $54 million ArriveCAN boondoggle. This is the same boondoggle that saw Canadians, who were exercising their right to return home, slapped with fines as high as $8,500. Then they were threatened with more fines if they were caught breaking the quarantine — as high as $750,000.
It was bad enough when we thought these fees were being levied to pay for your government’s complete failure in awarding this outrageous contract in the first place, but now it’s looking less like a failure and more like a deliberate get-rich-quick scheme for those with connections to the Trudeau government.
Senator Gold, what assurances can you give me and Canadians that Canadians weren’t unlawfully detained just so your government’s friends could line their pockets with taxpayers’ cash?
The assurance I can give you, Senator Housakos, is that all measures the government has in place were designed to protect Canadians, to facilitate entry into Canada and provide security for both those who enter and those who receive them. It is inappropriate and unseemly to allege or insinuate that this was about lining pockets. This was about protecting Canadians and doing the responsible thing in times of great crisis.
The only assurance that this chamber and taxpayers have is that the RCMP is looking into it. Hopefully, they’ll get to the bottom of which pockets got lined.
Senator Gold, given the latest news regarding it, will your government finally do the right thing and cancel the outstanding fines that were issued as a result of this deeply flawed and — as we now know — fraudulent app? Will you apologize to Canadians who were unlawfully ordered into quarantine despite having done nothing wrong — Canadians such as Joe Walsh and thousands of others who have been fined?
Thank you for your question. I cannot, of course, comment on specific cases, but I will certainly take your concerns and legitimate questions to the attention of the minister.
