MPs Vote to Further Probe ArriveCan Contracts Following Revelation of RCMP Investigation

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

MPs on a House of Commons committee have voted unanimously to further study the contracts surrounding the COVID-19-era application ArriveCan, following a recent revelation that the RCMP is looking into the matter.

“Our concerns began simply in an effort to get value for the money of Canadians, to get value for taxpayers’ money. But unfortunately, it has come to so much more than this,” Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie told the government operations committee on Oct. 17.

“We must now get the truth for Canadians,” she said before tabling her motion to re-open the committee’s ArriveCan study.

The ArriveCan system was developed to triage incoming travellers to Canada according to their vaccination status, directing the unvaccinated to go into quarantine.

The committee initially was looking into the $54 million price tag to create the application, with critics saying it could have been developed for a small fraction of the cost.

But concerns have now expanded beyond that with the Globe and Mail reporting in early October that the RCMP is investigating the contracting practices over alleged misconduct.

Whistleblower stakeholders have submitted complaints to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), which is responsible for ArriveCan, and the agency subsequently made a referral to the RCMP.

‘We Were Lied To’

Ms. Kusie read into the record a communication she said was received from whistleblower Ritika Dutt, the co-founder of IT company Botler AI, outlining a list of allegations that surfaced in her interactions with federal officials and firms subcontracting government work related to ArriveCan.

“So now we have allegations of identity theft, forged resumes, contractual theft, fraudulent billing, price fixing, and collusion, all with senior bureaucrats and three contractors, one who was in front of us during the ArriveCan investigation within this committee,” said Ms. Kusie.

The committee was set to table its report on ArriveCan within the next few weeks, but Ms. Kusie said its validity can’t be verified “because we were lied to during testimony.”

A number of witnesses will be called to appear or re-appear before committee, including the whistleblowers, government officials including relevant ministers, and the heads of the firms implicated in the allegations.

NDP MP Gord Johns had previously said his party intended to file a similar motion and expressed his support.

“We want to work together on this, we need to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “We clearly didn’t get to the bottom of it in the last round of having these witnesses before us.”

The Liberals also supported the motion, but MP Majid Jowhari expressed concerns about the timing of new meetings given the RCMP is currently investigating. He said he doesn’t want the federal police force to come to the committee just for them to say they can’t comment on an open investigation.

“We are going to support it, just to be very clear. It’s just I’m not sure at this point, if we move this to a priority for the committee, what we are going to get out of it,” he said.

Along with the RCMP probing the ArriveCan contracts, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) is also conducting a review further to the previous motion from Parliament adopted in November 2022.

Auditor General Karen Hogan testified at the public accounts committee on Oct. 12 that she had learned from the media about the RCMP investigation.

“We always ask questions linked to actual, suspected, or alleged fraud and we would expect that there’s an ongoing responsibility for officials to keep us informed of any matters that are relevant to the subject that we are auditing. So I am disappointed that they did not tell us,” she said.

Shortly after giving this evidence, the Liberals and the NDP voted to put an end to her testimony by adjourning the meeting.