QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
ArriveCAN Application
October 24, 2023
Senator Gold, last week, I asked Minister Duclos who is responsible at the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, and Public Services and Procurement Canada, or PSPC, for verifying outside consultants and subcontractors. We saw disturbing information this morning in The Globe and Mail about how $54 million of taxpayers’ money has been spent on ArriveCAN — on consultants who not only fudged their CVs but fabricated expertise for companies that, it seems, do not even exist. Given that information — and the fact that your government, since 2015, has increased spending on outside subcontractors and consultants by 74% — how can you possibly justify all this?
Can you tell this floor who in the Trudeau government is responsible for vetting these contracts? At the end of the day, ArriveCAN has become a fraud, a fiasco and an “ArriveScam.” Who is accountable for this?
Well, vis-à-vis the troubling allegations surrounding ArriveCAN, as senators know, the matter is not only under investigation by the RCMP, but there is also an internal investigation going on under the auspices of the CBSA.
It is also the case, colleagues, as you know, that Minister Anand has recently announced new public service guidelines for outsourcing and procurement, on when they are required and what tools to use to mitigate risk and ensure processes are transparent and appropriate.
There is nothing more on which I can comment in terms of the investigations except to say that they are ongoing both at the RCMP level and within the CBSA, which are the appropriate ways for those investigations to take place.
No one is being held accountable, but we know there are all kinds of investigations because this whole thing stinks. Senator Gold, while we still have a lot to learn about the rot that is “ArriveScam,” one thing is abundantly clear: Hard‑working, law-abiding everyday Canadians are facing exorbitant fines associated with this get-rich scheme for Liberal insiders — Canadians like Mr. Milad, a local tailor here in Ottawa, who was returning home from visiting his family in the Middle East and will now have to close his shop to travel to Montreal for a court date, costing him tons of money, Senator Gold.
When will your government do the right thing — while these investigations continue — and at least cancel the outstanding ArriveCAN fines that Canadians are being saddled with?
I will certainly take your suggestion to the attention of the appropriate minister. I would not assume one way or the other that every violation for which someone was fined was necessarily inappropriate, but I will transmit your suggestion as quickly as I can.
