House Votes to Audit Government’s $54 Million ArriveCan Spending

A smartphone set to the opening screen of the ArriveCan app is seen in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Giordano Ciampini

The House of Commons on Wednesday voted in favour of auditing the federal government’s $54 million spending on the ArriveCan app, which will include an investigation of all payments and contracts associated with creating and maintaining the app.

The performance audit motion, introduced by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Nov. 1, passed the House 174–149 and found support from both the NDP and Bloc Québécois. The Liberals and Green Party voted against it.

After introducing the motion Monday, Poilievre called ArriveCan a “huge waste” and said it could’ve been developed for under $250,000 in a single weekend, according to Canadian tech companies who cloned the app between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10.

The Canada Border Services Agency told The Epoch Times in a previous email that creating ArriveCan cost just $80,000, but extra needed services and “indirect costs,” such as technical support and ensuring the app met federal cybersecurity standards, raised the total price to $54 million.

The Liberal government previously presented documents in the House outlining various ArriveCan contracting costs, which stated that a Canadian tech company called ThinkOn received $1.2 million to contribute maintenance support for the app.

However, ThinkOn CEO Craig McLellan said his company never received the federal funding, according to a report by The Globe and Mail on Oct. 20.

“We want to know where the money went,” Poilievre said in the House on Nov. 1. “Who got rich?”

Performance Audit

The ArriveCan performance audit will be carried out by Auditor General Karen Hogan and, as Poilievre’s motion requests, will include an investigation of “the payments, contracts, and sub-contracts for all aspects of the ArriveCAN app” and will be given priority.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Liberal MPs have defended the government’s spending on ArriveCan, with Liberal MP Anthony Housefather saying he “will make no apology for an app that saved the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians.”

“This was part of a global health strategy in order to protect Canadians,” Housefather told the House on Oct. 7.

Trudeau called ArriveCan “an optimal use of taxpayer money” and said the $54 million used included “much more than the developer’s fees.”

“It’s extra services, the IT services, updates, call centres, and future costs,” he said in the House on Oct. 19.

In a Twitter post following the motion’s passing on Nov. 2, Poilievre wrote, “Now, call in the auditors to get to the truth.”

“When $54 million goes out the door and government officials can’t get their story straight about where it went, the least we can do is have an audit,” Poilievre said Tuesday in the House.

“Put the auditor general in charge, look into these costs, find out who got the money, who got rich, and why we spent $54 million on an app that could have been designed for a quarter of a million dollars.”