The statement comes after the Globe and Mail revealed that Ottawa awarded a contract worth more than $8 million to two-person company GStrategies to develop the application, but the latter underwrote the work at six other companies.
Ottawa launched the app during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow travelers to demonstrate their vaccination status.
Obviously, this approach seems highly illogical and inefficient and […] Clerk of the Privy Council [Janice Charette, la plus haute fonctionnaire, NDLR] We’re going to look at sourcing methods and make sure we’re getting what we pay for and doing it in a smart and logical way,” Trudeau said.
“Of course, during the pandemic, the speed [d’agir] It was important to help people quickly, but there are principles that must be respected. »
— A quote from Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
According to the Canada Border Services Agency, the application and services associated with the ArriveCAN application will have cost $54 million by March 2023.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates began examining ArriveCAN’s staggering cost to determine if the application could have been cheaper to develop.
According to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), in addition to developing the original version of this application and its numerous updates, the government had to pay $7.5 million for Service Canada’s call center, which answered more than 645,000 calls for health measures; $4.9 million for benefits or office rent; Expenditure of $4.5 million to build and maintain computer systems needed to support border health operations; and $2.3 million to ensure compliance with Canadian cybersecurity standards.
To these expenses must be added, among other things, $4.5 million for technical assistance to travelers, airlines and airports and $3.8 million for unforeseen expenses, the nature of which is not specified.
Since its launch in 2020, the application has sparked several complaints about the red tape it causes, in addition to the malfunctions and obstacles encountered by travelers with technical difficulties. The use of ArriveCAN has been optional since October.
With information from Peter Zimonjic, CBC News