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
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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.
Outside of sports and a “Cold front coming down from Canada,” American news media only report on Canadian events that they believe are, or will be, influential to the US. Therefore, when Justin Trudeau’s announcement, having finally read the room, that Canada will be reducing the number of permanent residents admitted by more than 20 percent and temporary residents like skilled workers and college students will be cut by more than half made news south of the border, I knew the American media felt Trudeau’s about-face on immigration was newsworthy because many Americans would relate to Trudeau realizing Canada was accepting more immigrants than it could manage and are hoping their next POTUS will follow Trudeau’s playbook.
Canada, with lots of space and lacking convenient geographical ways for illegal immigrants to enter the country, though still many do, has a global reputation for being incredibly accepting of immigrants. On the surface, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver appear to be multicultural havens. However, as the saying goes, “Too much of a good thing is never good,” resulting in a sharp rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, which you can almost taste in the air. A growing number of Canadians, regardless of their political affiliation, are blaming recent immigrants for causing the housing affordability crises, inflation, rise in crime and unemployment/stagnant wages.
Throughout history, populations have engulfed themselves in a tribal frenzy, a psychological state where people identify strongly with their own group, often leading to a ‘us versus them’ mentality. This has led to quick shifts from complacency to panic and finger-pointing at groups outside their tribe, a phenomenon that is not unique to any particular culture or time period.
My take on why the American news media found Trudeau’s blatantly obvious attempt to save his political career, balancing appeasement between the pitchfork crowd, who want a halt to immigration until Canada gets its house in order, and immigrant voters, who traditionally vote Liberal, newsworthy; the American news media, as do I, believe immigration fatigue is why Kamala Harris is going to lose on November 5th.
Because they frequently get the outcome wrong, I don’t take polls seriously. According to polls in 2014, Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives and Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals were in a dead heat in Ontario, yet Wynne won with more than twice as many seats. In the 2018 Quebec election, most polls had the Coalition Avenir Québec with a 1-to-5-point lead over the governing Liberals. The result: The Coalition Avenir Québec enjoyed a landslide victory, winning 74 of 125 seats. Then there’s how the 2016 US election polls showing Donald Trump didn’t have a chance of winning against Hillary Clinton were ridiculously way off, highlighting the importance of the election day poll and, applicable in this election as it was in 2016, not to discount ‘shy Trump supporters;’ voters who support Trump but are hesitant to express their views publicly due to social or political pressure.
My distrust in polls aside, polls indicate Harris is leading by a few points. One would think that Trump’s many over-the-top shenanigans, which would be entertaining were he not the POTUS or again seeking the Oval Office, would have him far down in the polls. Trump is toe-to-toe with Harris in the polls because his approach to the economy—middle-class Americans are nostalgic for the relatively strong economic performance during Trump’s first three years in office—and immigration, which Americans are hyper-focused on right now, appeals to many Americans. In his quest to win votes, Trump is doing what anyone seeking political office needs to do: telling the people what they want to hear, strategically using populism—populism that serves your best interests is good populism—to evoke emotional responses. Harris isn’t doing herself any favours, nor moving voters, by going the “But, but… the orange man is bad!” route, while Trump cultivates support from “weird” marginal voting groups.
To Harris’s credit, things could have fallen apart when Biden abruptly stepped aside. Instead, Harris quickly clinched the nomination and had a strong first few weeks, erasing the deficit Biden had given her. The Democratic convention was a success, as was her acceptance speech. Her performance at the September 10th debate with Donald Trump was first-rate.
Harris’ Achilles heel is she’s now making promises she could have made and implemented while VP, making immigration and the economy Harris’ liabilities, especially since she’s been sitting next to Biden, watching the US turn into the circus it has become. These liabilities, basically her only liabilities, negate her stance on abortion, democracy, healthcare, a long-winning issue for Democrats, and Trump’s character. All Harris has offered voters is “feel-good vibes” over substance. In contrast, Trump offers the tangible political tornado (read: steamroll the problems Americans are facing) many Americans seek. With Trump, there’s no doubt that change, admittedly in a messy fashion, will happen. If enough Americans believe the changes he’ll implement will benefit them and their country…
The case against Harris on immigration, at a time when there’s a huge global backlash to immigration, even as the American news media are pointing out, in famously immigrant-friendly Canada, is relatively straightforward: During the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, illegal Southern border crossings increased significantly.
The words illegal immigration, to put it mildly, irks most Americans. On the legal immigration front, according to Forbes, most billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants. Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, to name three, have immigrants as CEOs. Immigrants, with tech skills and an entrepreneurial thirst, have kept America leading the world. I like to think that Americans and Canadians understand the best immigration policy is to strategically let enough of these immigrants in who’ll increase GDP and tax base and not rely on social programs. In other words, Americans and Canadians, and arguably citizens of European countries, expect their governments to be more strategic about immigration.
The days of the words on a bronze plaque mounted inside the Statue of Liberty pedestal’s lower level, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” are no longer tolerated. Americans only want immigrants who’ll benefit America.
Does Trump demagogue the immigration issue with xenophobic and racist tropes, many of which are outright lies, such as claiming Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets? Absolutely. However, such unhinged talk signals to Americans who are worried about the steady influx of illegal immigrants into their country that Trump can handle immigration so that it’s beneficial to the country as opposed to being an issue of economic stress.
In many ways, if polls are to be believed, Harris is paying the price for Biden and her lax policies early in their term. Yes, stimulus spending quickly rebuilt the job market, but at the cost of higher inflation. Loosen border policies at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment was increasing was a gross miscalculation, much like Trudeau’s immigration quota increase, and Biden indulging himself in running for re-election should never have happened.
If Trump wins, Democrats will proclaim that everyone is sexist, racist and misogynous, not to mention a likely White Supremacist, and for good measure, they’ll beat the “voter suppression” button. If Harris wins, Trump supporters will repeat voter fraud—since July, Elon Musk has tweeted on Twitter at least 22 times about voters being “imported” from abroad—being widespread.
Regardless of who wins tomorrow, Americans need to cool down; and give the divisive rhetoric a long overdue break. The right to an opinion belongs to everyone. Someone whose opinion differs from yours is not by default sexist, racist, a fascist or anything else; they simply disagree with you. Americans adopting the respectful mindset to agree to disagree would be the best thing they could do for the United States of America.
CALGARY – Sam Edney and Jesse Lumsden sat on a bench on Parliament Hill during an athlete celebration after the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Having just represented Canada in their sliding sports — Lumsden in bobsled and Edney in luge — the two men pondered their futures together.
“There was actually one moment about, are we going to keep going? Talking about, what are each of us going to do? What’s the next four years look like?” Edney recalled a decade later.
“I do remember talking about that now. That was a big moment,” Lumsden said.
As the two men were sounding boards for each other as athletes, they are again as high-performance directors of their respective sliding sports.
Edney, an Olympic relay silver medallist in 2018 and the first Canadian man to win a World Cup gold medal, became Luge Canada’s HPD upon his retirement the following year.
Lumsden, a world and World Cup bobsled champion who raced his third Olympic Games in 2018, leaned on his sliding compatriot when he returned from five years of working in the financial sector to become HPD at Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton in July.
“The first person I called when BCS reached out to me about the role that I’m in now is Sam,” Lumsden said recently at Calgary’s WinSport, where they spent much of their competitive careers and now have offices.
“It’s been four months. I was squatting in the luge offices for the first two months beside him.
“We had all these ideas about we’re going to have weekly coffees and workouts Tuesday and Thursday and in the four months now, we’ve had two coffees and zero workouts.”
Canada has won at least one sliding-sport Olympic medal in each of the last five Winter Games, but Edney and Lumsden face a challenge as team leaders that they didn’t as athletes.
WinSport’s sliding track, built for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and where Edney and Lumsden did hundreds of runs as athletes, has been closed since 2019 needing a $25-million renovation.
There is no sign that will happen. WinSport took the $10 million the provincial government offered for the sliding track and put the money toward a renovation of the Frank King Lodge used by recreational skiers and snowboarders.
Canada’s only other sliding track in the resort town of Whistler, B.C., has a fraction of Calgary’s population from which to recruit and develop athletes.
“The comparison is if you took half the ice rinks away in the country, hockey and figure skating would be disarray,” Edney said.
“It just changes the dynamic of the sports completely, in terms of we’re now scrambling to find ways to bring people to a location that’s not as easy to get to, or to live out of, or to train out of full time.
“We’re realizing how good we had it when Calgary’s (track) was here. It’s not going to be the end of us, but it’s definitely made it more difficult.”
Lumsden, a former CFL running back as well as an Olympian, returned to a national sport organization still recovering from internal upheaval that included the athlete-led ouster of the former president and CEO after the 2022 Winter Olympics, and Olympic champion pilot Kaillie Humphries suing the organization for her release to compete for the U.S. in 2019.
“NSOs like Luge Canada and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, they’re startups,” Lumsden said. “You have to think like a startup, operate like a startup, job stack, do more with less, especially in the current environment.
“I felt it was the right time for me to take my sporting experience and the skill set that I learned at Neo Financial and working with some of the most talented people in Canada and try to inject that into an NSO that is in a state of distress right now, and try to work with the great staff we have and the athletes we have to start to turn this thing around.”
Edney, 40, and Lumsden, 42, take comfort in each other holding the same roles in their sports.
“It goes both ways. I couldn’t have been more excited about who they hired,” Edney said. “When Jesse was coming in, I knew that we were going to be able to collaborate and work together and get things happening for our sports.”
Added Lumsden: “We’ve been friends for a long time, so I knew how he was going to do in his role and before taking the role, having the conversation with him, I felt a lot of comfort.
“I asked ‘are you going to be around for a long time?’ He said ‘yeah, I’m not going anywhere.’ I said ‘OK, good.'”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
MALAGA, Spain (AP) — With the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup set to be played in Malaga, Spain, this month, the International Tennis Federation is making a donation to the Spanish Red Cross to support relief and recovery efforts for the recent catastrophic flooding in the country.
The ITF and its two team tournaments said in a news release Tuesday that they “express their deepest sympathy to the victims and support for the communities and families affected by the devastating floods in Spain and its regions.”
The Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup, along with the ITF, “are donating to the Cruz Roja, and we encourage all our fans and followers to contribute as well.”
The ITF did not say how much it is donating.
Authorities have recovered more than 200 bodies in the eastern Valencia region after heavy downpours caused flash flooding. Police, firefighters and soldiers continued to search Tuesday for an unknown number of missing people.
The Billie Jean King Cup matches are scheduled for Nov. 13-20, and the Davis Cup — the last event of 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal’s career — is set for Nov. 19-24, all in Malaga.
