QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Canada Border Services Agency
May 18, 2023
Leader, if you would one time answer our questions properly — Senator Housakos asked you a question.
I answered it.
No, you did not answer it. You did not answer his question about how much the government is spending. You did not answer my question about how Canadians can contact the Special Rapporteur. That wasn’t a degradation of the previous Governor General. It is the Prime Minister who is showing contempt to a wonderful individual, as the Governor General, Mr. Johnston. It’s the Prime Minister who appointed him and said, “This is my good family friend. A member of the Trudeau Foundation, a good family friend, and I’m appointing him as a Special Rapporteur. By the way, if you want to get ahold of him, contact my office.” But he’s independent.
And then you say we have disrespect. You are sitting there and laughing at Canadians, and the Prime Minister is laughing at Canadians. His dad had the famous Western Canadian salute. This Prime Minister is using both hands.
My question now concerns the ArriveCAN app. Let’s see if you can just once answer a question without all of your diatribe about how evil we are. Answer a question.
This app, leader, was never necessary, but if the Trudeau government was so intent on going ahead with it, it could have asked some of the thousands of IT professionals who work for the Government of Canada to develop it. It could even have contracted out the work that this government so loves to do. Instead, this incompetent government chose to pay over $8 million to a two-person company.
I wonder what last name they had. Were they also friends of the Prime Minister? A two-person company to subcontract out this work to major multinationals.
You’re being disrespectful.
When this came to light in January, leader, all the Prime Minister could say is that he asked questions of the public service about this deal. It’s his government, leader. It’s been almost four months since the Prime Minister has asked these questions of the public service. What did he find out, leader? Why did this happen, leader, and how much was spent in total to subcontract the work of the ArriveCAN app?
Now, if you have respect for us, answer those questions.
The ArriveCAN app was put in place to protect Canadians and to protect our health and our communities, and that is why it was done, and that’s my answer.
