QUESTION PERIOD — Public Services and Procurement
ArriveCAN Application
February 14, 2024
Leader, among the $258 million that GC Strategies has been given by the Trudeau government since 2015, there were two contracts for the ArriveCAN app related to cybersecurity.
In her report on Monday, the Auditor General estimated these contracts were worth $743,000. The Auditor General found that some of the workers tasked to do the cybersecurity work did not have security clearance. The Auditor General also said that there was no supporting documentation to confirm that work related to cybersecurity was actually performed by four out of five resources.
Leader, the app dealt with the personal information of Canadians, and it’s part of a scandalous waste of taxpayers’ dollars. Why did your government let this happen?
I think by now we can all agree, even if we put different interpretations on it, that what happened with this app, and particularly the company that was charged with doing it, was simply a failure. It was a failure of basic management practices, oversight, documentation — the list is long, but each and every one of them is unacceptable and should not have happened.
The fact remains that investigations are under way, including a criminal investigation. So until we and the government have the results of that, it’s impossible to answer the question of how it could have happened. That’s exactly what needs to be found out.
I can also add, if I may take the opportunity to mention some of the other contracts — because I didn’t have them — that were suspended by Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, that includes CORADIX Technology Consulting and Dalian Enterprises.
Leader, last week, Liberal MPs and their partners in the NDP voted to shut down a House committee meeting on ArriveCAN after viewing a preliminary report from the CBSA on the scandal. One Liberal MP called the contents of the report, “scary.” That is a direct quote.
What was so scary about the secret report, leader? Did it have anything to do with security or did it have to do with the culture of corruption in the Trudeau government?
All that I know and am able to share with you is that a decision was made not to proceed further with the hearings out of concern that the contents of that document, of which I am unaware, could compromise the integrity of the important police investigations into that.
Once again, colleagues, I know that it is frustrating perhaps for all of us, and certainly for you in the opposition, but I’m not in a position to share information that would be damaging to an ongoing police investigation, even if I had it, which I do not.
