Trudeau Says Giving ArriveCan Contract to Staffing Firm ‘Seems Highly Illogical’

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers an address at the Laurier Club Holiday Event, an event for supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada, in Gatineau, Que., on Dec. 15, 2022. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

With a House of Commons committee about to investigate the Liberal government’s awarding of contracts to consulting firm McKinsey, other contract issues surfacing and re-surfacing were addressed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Jan. 23, with him calling the ArriveCan contract “illogical.”

“Obviously this is a practice that seems highly illogical and inefficient, and I have made sure that the clerk of the Privy Council is looking into procurement practices to make sure that we’re getting value for money and that we’re doing things in a smart and logical way,” Trudeau said in Toronto while visiting Xanadu Quantum Technologies.

The prime minister was reacting to a report from the Globe and Mail indicating that a company that was awarded a contract to build the ArriveCan application subcontracted the work, including to multinationals.

Trudeau was asked why the government is paying millions to a small company that then subcontracts the work instead of directly hiring the companies doing the work or having departments do the work themselves.

“That’s exactly the question that I just asked of the public service,” Trudeau said.

“Of course, during the pandemic, speed was at an essence, helping people quickly was at an essence, but there are principles that we should make sure are sound moving forward.”

The federal government spent $54 million to build the application initially projected to cost $80,000.

The use of ArriveCan, a service to track the vaccination status and quarantine plans of incoming travellers, stopped being mandatory last fall following pressures from industry and civil society.

New documents obtained by the Commons government operations committee and reported on by the Globe reportedly show that two-person company GCStrategies subcontracted its work to six companies: BDO Canada LLP; Optiv Security Inc./Optiv Canada Inc.; KPMG LLP; Macadamian Technologies Inc.; Level Access and Distill Mobile Inc.

The six subcontractors would have been paid $8.3 million in total. GCStrategies partner Kristian Firth told the committee in October that his company makes a commission of between 15 and 30 percent when hiring subcontractors.

He said GCStrategies invoiced over $44 million over the past two years for contracting with over 20 departments.

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Trudeau was also asked during his press conference about contracts awarded by his Minister of Housing and Diversity Ahmed Hussen.

Global News reported last week that Hussen gave at least $93,000 in constituency office funds to a communications firm doing business in the food industry.

The company Munch More Media is owned by the sister of Hussen’s policy director Tia Tariq.

“I know the Minister has spoken to this and will continue to answer questions on this,” Trudeau said when asked if the contracts were appropriate and if corrective action would be taken.

The prime minister said his preoccupation is that rules be followed and that MPs communicate with their constituents.

Hussen’s office told Global that the arrangement had been disclosed to the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.

Declarations by officials and MPs and opinions of the commissioner are confidential.

This revelation comes on the heels of a decision of the government operations committee to scrutinize the over $100 million in contracts that were awarded to U.S. multinational firm McKinsey, and after a Liberal Minister was found in violation of ethics rules.

Trade Minister Mary Ng’s office had awarded a media training contract to her friend Amanda Alvaro.