QUESTION PERIOD — Public Services and Procurement
Procurement Process
November 8, 2023
Senator Gold, yesterday, we heard scathing testimony in the House of Commons committee looking into the ArriveCAN outsourcing scam. The former director general of the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, accused his superior of lying to the committee, in particular about who made the decision to go with GC Strategies. He testified that he had recommended Deloitte, but he was told that they were put in the penalty box. He said he was told by his superior that the decision comes from above.
The only people, Senator Gold, that the director general’s superior has above are the President of the CBSA and the minister himself. Who of the two decided to bypass not just the hundreds of IT experts in the public service but also Deloitte in favour of whichever Liberal insiders lined their pockets through GC Strategies?
I’m sure we’re all concerned, senators, aren’t we?
Who gave the order, Senator Gold? Was it the President of the CBSA, or was it the minister? Who gave the order?
I will say a number of things.
First, these are very troubling allegations of a superior lying, and I have no comments on the truth or otherwise of the claims of one employee to his former superior.
As you know, colleagues, the CBSA has suspended contracts with GC Strategies, with Coradix Technology and Dalian Enterprises. The government is aware that the RCMP is investigating these allegations.
Misconduct of any kind in procurement is never acceptable. To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigations, the government cannot provide any further comment.
What else is new? This former director general also testified that when he left the CBSA, the price tag he costed for ArriveCAN was $6.3 million. He said he was shocked at the news that it had ballooned to over $54 million — another Canadian realizing Justin Trudeau is just not worth the cost.
Was that a result of putting Deloitte in the penalty box in favour of GC Strategies? Shouldn’t the person who made the decision be held accountable, Senator Gold? Don’t we believe in accountability? Who took this decision, and why aren’t you interested in holding that person to account?
All of the circumstances around this, including which person is telling the truth or not telling the truth, are matters that are being investigated by the RCMP. There will be no further comment from the government or from the representative of the government in this place pending the conclusion of those investigations.
