The final cost of the controversial ArriveCan app is impossible to determine due to poor financial record-keeping, a new auditor general report has found.
It is just one of the findings that Canada’s Auditor General Karen Hogan highlighted in a damning report about the pandemic-era tool.
Overall, Hogan found that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Public Services and Procurement Canada “repeatedly failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development and implementation of the ArriveCan application.”
“This is probably the first example that I’ve seen such a glaring disregard for some of the most basic and fundamental policies and rules,” Hogan told the House public accounts committee on Monday.
Hogan said she found “omissions everywhere” in the financial record-keeping.
“I have to say I am deeply concerned by what this audit didn’t find,” she told MPs on the committee.
“We didn’t find records to accurately show how much was spent on what, who did the work, or how and why contracting decisions were made — and that paper trail should have existed.”
WATCH | ‘We paid too much,’ for ArriveCan, says auditor general:
Total cost of ArriveCan ‘impossible to determine,’ auditor general finds
5 hours ago
Duration 2:35
A new auditor general report has found the final cost of the controversial ArriveCan app is ‘impossible to determine’ due to what it says is poor financial record-keeping.
CBSA said previously the development and operation of the app cost an estimated $54 million.
Hogan estimates the project cost was $59.5 million — but, as the report notes, she was only able to arrive at that figure based on the information available to her.
“We found that financial records were not well-maintained by the Canada Border Services Agency. We were unable to determine a precise cost for the ArriveCan application because of [the agency’s] poor documentation and weak controls,” the report says.
Poor record-keeping makes it impossible to know exactly how much the ArriveCan app cost, says a report by Canada’s auditor general. (Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press)
The report says that 18 per cent of invoices submitted by outside contractors that worked on the app didn’t have “sufficient supporting documentation” to accurately determine the cost of the project.
Hogan told the committee that the government “paid too much” for the project and that poor record-keeping compromised accountability.
The report also notes that the CBSA has estimated that $12.2 million of the $59.5 million estimate could have been unrelated to ArriveCan.
Hogan said she was unable to determine what was included in spending on the app and what wasn’t. She said that the actual cost of the app could be higher or lower than the $59.5 million estimate.
“There could be amounts there that should not be linked to ArriveCan, but there also could be amounts that are linked to ArriveCan that were not flagged in the books,” she said.
Government relied heavily on outside contractors
CBSA depended heavily on third-party contractors to develop the app. The report cites that reliance as a major factor in its ballooning costs.
Hogan’s report suggests that a reduction in the use of outside contractors could have lowered costs and “enhanced value for money.”
As an example, the report estimates that the per diem costs for external ArriveCan contractors was $1,090, while the average daily cost of an equivalent internal position is $675.
The CBSA said in a statement Monday that it’s implementing the recommendations Hogan made in her report. The agency also argued that the app needed to be rolled out quickly at the start of the pandemic.
“The CBSA was working as quickly as possible to replace a paper process that was not meeting public health needs and was also impacting the border with significant wait times that disrupted the essential flow of people and goods,” the statement said.
WATCH | Poilievre blasts government over ArriveCan costs:
Poilievre criticizes use of outside consultants after ArriveCan report
14 hours ago
Duration 1:48
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says a government led by him would cut down on outside consultants after Auditor General Karen Hogan’s report on the ArriveCan app found a ‘glaring disregard’ for basic management practices.
Hogan told MPs on Monday that seeking outside help for the app at the start of the pandemic was “reasonable.” But she said she would have expected less reliance on outside contractors as the project continued.
“We didn’t see that transition, whether it be that the public service take over some of the operations of the application or that there be a transfer of some knowledge or skill,” she said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blasted the government over the app’s costs and accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “wasting [taxpayers’] money.” He promised to cut back on third-party outsourcing if his party forms government after the next election.
“Public servants do the work more accountably and they do it more affordably,” Poilievre told reporters outside the House of Commons on Monday.
WATCH | ArriveCan contracting practice was ‘unacceptable,’ says LeBlanc
ArriveCan contracting practice was ‘unacceptable,’ says LeBlanc
12 hours ago
Duration 2:44
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he’s glad the auditor general has drawn attention to the ‘lack of rigour in the contracting process’ for ArriveCan.
Responding to questions from reporters on Monday, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said ArriveCan’s “contracting process was unacceptable.”
Pressed to state whether the Liberal government takes any responsibility for the process, LeBlanc said it already has started corrective measures.
“The Trudeau government accepts that taxpayers’ money needs to be treated with the utmost respect. In no way are we going to defending this particular contracting process,” he said.
LeBlanc said he’s confident that an ongoing CBSA investigation into the matter will root out any wrongdoing that occurred during the contracting process.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh blamed the rise in government outsourcing on both Liberal and Conservative governments.
“This is the result of years of Conservatives and Liberals creating a system that allows wealthy consultants to procure government contracts and make millions in profits at the expense of our professional public service and Canadian taxpayers,” he said in a media statement.
Firm influenced criteria for contract it was later awarded
There is also little documentation to show why or how the biggest contractor — GC Strategies — was chosen for the project.
The company is a two-person consulting firm that advertises itself as being able to help companies navigate the government’s procurement process.
GC Strategies was given a sole-source contract in April 2020 despite a lack of evidence that the firm provided a proposal document for the project, the report says.
Hogan notes that at least one other firm provided an initial proposal for the same contract.
WATCH | AG says firm shouldn’t have been involved in developing contract criteria:
Outside vendor ‘likely limited competition’ in ArriveCan proposal process, auditor general says
12 hours ago
Duration 1:31
Auditor General Karen Hogan says GC Strategies’ involvement in the request for proposal process for Arrive Can likely led to very ‘restrictive and narrow’ selection criteria that allowed only the consulting firm to respond to the proposal request.
The report indicates that the auditor general couldn’t determine which government official made the final decision to select GC Strategies for the April 2020 contract.
And Hogan also found that GC Strategies was later involved in developing requirements that were later used for a competitive contract. That contract — valued at $25 million — was awarded to GC Strategies, the report says.
“In our view, flaws in the competitive processes to award further ArriveCan contracts raised significant concerns that the process did not result in the best value for money,” the report reads.
Alexander Jeglic, Canada’s procurement ombudsman, found the criteria used in awarding one contract “heavily favoured” GC Strategies. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
A previous report by Alexander Jeglic, Canada’s procurement ombudsman, found that the criteria used in awarding the $25-million contract were “overly restrictive” and “heavily favoured” GC Strategies.
Jeglic also found that GC Strategies “copied and pasted” government-listed requirements for subcontractors on numerous occasions when submitting proposals to CBSA officials.
Speaking to reporters following her appearance at committee, Hogan echoed Jeglic’s conclusion that the requirements for the $25 million contract heavily favoured GC Strategies. Hogan noted that GC Strategies was ultimately the only firm to bid on the contract.
“[The requirements] were very restrictive and narrow, which likely limited competition,” she said.
“That kind of involvement by an outside vendor in a competitive process should not happen.”
CBSA officials invited to ‘dinners and other activities’
Hogan’s report also raised concerns about CBSA officials having a close relationship with certain contractors, noting that the officials in question were invited “to dinners and other activities.”
Those officials did not disclose information about these invitations to their supervisors, which she said “created a significant risk or perception of a conflict of interest around procurement decisions.”
The report notes that further investigation of these findings was not pursued because they are subject to ongoing investigations by the CBSA and the RCMP.
The CBSA has been conducting an internal investigation of the ArriveCan contracts. Agency president Erin O’Gorman told the House government operations committee last month that the investigation’s preliminary findings caused her great concern.
O’Gorman said the investigation found “a pattern of persistent collaboration between certain officials and GC Strategies. They show efforts to circumvent or ignore established procurement processes and roles and responsibilities.”
O’Gorman cautioned that the investigation is still ongoing, but a copy of the preliminary findings was provided to MPs on the committee last week.
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
