A parliamentary inquiry into the $54 million ArriveCan app this week will feature testimony from a key figure in Ottawa, consultant Vaughn Brennan.
Mr. Brennan is expected to provide insights into the awarding of lucrative contracts that have raised questions of potential impropriety within the government, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
Mr. Brennan initially resisted calls to testify but is now scheduled to appear before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates on Jan. 17. Mr. Brennan is linked to the project through his association with GC Strategies Incorporated, a consulting firm based in Woodlawn, Ont.
Witnesses have previously testified at the committee that Mr. Brennan reportedly “rubbed shoulders with every assistant deputy minister in town” and considered $23 million on a sole-sourced contract “a drop in the bucket.”
The reluctance of Mr. Brennan and GC Strategies to participate in the inquiry has been noted by Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, chair of the operations committee. Mr. McCauley highlighted the challenges faced in securing their cooperation.
“GC Strategies is playing hard to get,” Mr. McCauley said at a committee meeting in October 2023. “That would be a polite way of saying it. We have not been able to get a commitment from them despite our clerk going above and beyond in trying to accommodate them. We’re having difficulties with them.”
GC Strategies, a small-scale operation run from a residential location, received an $8.9 million sole-sourced contract for the ArriveCan project in 2020. The company reportedly earned a significant commission and subcontracted the actual work, a point of contention highlighted in the hearings.
The inquiry also seeks to determine the federal manager responsible for inviting GC Strategies to submit a proposal for ArriveCan, a digital application introduced during the pandemic to manage cross-border travel in relation to COVID-19 vaccination status. The lack of accountability and transparency in this process has been a focal point of criticism.
Since 2022, GC Strategies has secured federal contracts totalling approximately $44 million, a figure that has raised additional questions about its relationship with the government and the processes surrounding contract awards.
“Nobody wants to take responsibility,” Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said at the Nov. 28 hearing.
The Epoch Times contacted GC Strategies for comment but did not immediately hear back.
