'Trudeau took $60 mln and put it into this scam': Canada's opposition over Covid app bungle

The nation’s top watchdog said in a harsh assessment on Monday that the Canadian government mishandled a COVID-era programme for travellers at every turn, neglected to maintain records, and mismanaged financial resources.

In order to gather health data from travellers and support quarantine procedures, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) introduced the ArriveCAN application in April 2020 in collaboration with the ministries of public services and health.

In a formal report submitted to parliament, Auditor General Karen Hogan stated that the government “repeatedly failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development, and implementation of the ArriveCAN application”.

According to her, the software was changed 177 times, frequently with little to no testing documentation, and 10,000 travellers were once given the incorrect order to quarantine.

“CBSA’s documentation, financial records and controls were so poor that we were unable to determine the precise cost of the ArriveCAN application,” Hogan said, estimating the final price tag to be C$59.5 million ($44.3 million).

“As a result of the many gaps and weaknesses we found in the project’s design, oversight, and accountability, it did not deliver the best value for taxpayer dollars spent.”

The report comes at a time when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberals are badly trailing the official opposition Conservative Party ahead of an election that must be held by October next year.

“He took 60 million of your dollars and put it into this arrive scam – think of that,” Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre told reporter.

In response, the CBSA said in a statement that the audit had identified “unacceptable gaps”, adding that it was revamping the way it handled contracts.

Canada lifted all pandemic-era travel restrictions, testing and quarantine rules on Oct. 1, 2022.

The report adds to another audit of the government’s COVID policies that found some C$4.6 billion of relief funds ended up in ineligible hands due to verification lapses.

($1 = 1.3438 Canadian dollars)