Ottawa Still Has Active Contracts With ArriveCan Firm Despite Minister’s Declaration They Were All Suspended

Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 13, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

Despite assurances by Minister of Public Services and Procurement Jean-Yves Duclos that all contracts with the company primarily responsible for ArriveCan’s development have been suspended, his department says some contracts are still ongoing.

“By prudence, since November 2023 the contracts with GC Strategies were put on hold, particularly so that within [Canada Border Services Agency] there can be a review of the quality of the contracts,” Mr. Duclos told reporters on Feb. 14.

Later that day, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) told The Epoch Times in a statement that the department issued a stop-work order on the sixth contract between GC Strategies and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), at the latter’s request, but that some contracts with other federal entities remained ongoing.

Spokesperson Michèle LaRose also said PSPC has contacted those entities to express concerns.

“There are a small number of lower-value contracts that are outside of PSPC’s authority that remain in place,” she said. “PSPC is informing those departments of our concerns and actions so they may take appropriate action within their authorities.”

Ms. LaRose added that PSPC has not awarded any new contracts to GC Strategies and that the company has been barred from competing for bids.

For months, GC Strategies has been at the centre of a political firestorm around the ArriveCan application, which was used to check the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers entering Canada during the pandemic.

Critics and opposition parties have suggested that the app could have been developed for a fraction of its estimated $59.5 million price tag. And in a damning report released Feb. 12, Canada’s auditor general said that CBSA, PSPC, and the Public Health Agency of Canada “failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development, and implementation” of the app.

Auditor General Karen Hogan said her office could not determine the app’s precise cost because CBSA’s “documentation, financial records, and controls were so poor.” Essential information was missing, such as clear deliverables and required qualifications, and “details about the work performed were often missing on invoices and supporting time sheets submitted by contractors that the agency approved.”

The report also found that GC Strategies, a two-person IT company that was given $19.1 million to work on ArriveCan, was improperly involved in developing the requirements used for a competitive ArriveCan contract.

Active Contracts Remain

PSPC did not indicate which federal entities have ongoing contracts with GC Strategies. However, a Jan. 29 government response to an Inquiry of Ministry from Tory MP Michael Barrett provides a tally of contracts awarded to the company since 2015.

A contract with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada valued at nearly $2 million “remains open and is ongoing.” Additionally, Natural Resources Canada has an ongoing $778,531 contract with GC Strategies for “management consulting.” The Epoch Times has contacted the two departments for comment.

PSPC said it asked other government departments and agencies in November 2023 to review any active contracts with GC Strategies that had been put in place under their own authorities. PSPC said this was to ensure all resources used within the contracts had the proper security clearances, as it had been revealed that some resources under GC Strategies did not have valid clearances.

PSPC also asked departments and agencies to ensure the resumes of company personnel involved in the contracts were valid and accurate and that “the appropriate consent(s) were secured and documented for resources within applicable contracts.” This request came after the co-founders of Botler AI, a Montreal IT company involved in a previous CBSA outsourcing project in 2019, accused GC Strategies of forging their resumes without their knowledge so that they would qualify for the government contract.