The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) claimed at the time the ArriveCan digital border surveillance program was necessary because customs papers were infected with COVID-19. The federal agency persisted in the claim the $59.5 million was needed despite its own doctors at the time saying there was no evidence paper spread the coronavirus, per Blacklock’s Reporter. “Between March 2020 and October 2022 PHAC processed 1,305,591 paper forms. The total paid to process these forms was $4,176,130 or approximately $2.93 per form,” said a February 20 agency memo.“Early in the pandemic before the transmission vectors of Covid were well understood there was suspicion the virus could ‘live’ on and be transmitted via the paper forms,” wrote officials. “All paper forms were collected using biohazard protocols and subsequently had to be digitized and uploaded into the Agency’s database. This was a time intensive process.”“Generally the Agency did not receive traveler information submitted via paper until five to eight days after entry. Sometimes it took as long as 14 days to receive the information. The data received through the forms was also of low quality due to illegible handwriting.”PHAC doctors, however, never claimed COVID-19 was transmissible by paper. “I am not quite sure what the risk would be,” Dr. Howard Njoo, deputy chief public health officer, told reporters March 23, 2020. “The risk is not really out there. There should be no chance of interaction.”Managers have never identified the source of their paper germ theory. Jonathan Moor, a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) vice-president, testified April 3 at the Commons Public Accounts Committee that an unidentified expert told managers that paper forms were unsafe.“We were told we could catch COVID-19 from touching documents,” said Moor.“Our number one priority initially working with that was to get the electronic form up and running.”Moor made a similar claim in March 26 testimony at the Commons Government Operations Committee. “A lot of the individual Border Services officers really were very reluctant to touch paper because the Public Health Agency had said you can catch Covid from touching paper, so the necessity to get a paperless process in place was really important,” he said.He defended PHAC’s work. “I am very proud of what we did during the pandemic. “We know we made mistakes,” he said. “These were very, very difficult times. This is a time where people were crossing the border to return back to Canada when we were told we could catch Covid from touching documents.”
