Dozens of federal employees logged thousands of hours on the ArriveCan app despite the hiring of 32 contractors costing $59.5 million, new records published by Blacklock’s Reporter show. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said staff logged 134,000 hours on the program it falsely claimed had “saved lives.” An Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the House of Commons said as many as 38 employees logged 74,455 hours working on the program in 2022 and another 59,598 hours in 2023.“ArriveCan like other projects takes up parts of people’s time from across all of the Agency,” CBSA wrote in the inquiry. Opposition House Leader Conservative MP Andrew Scheer requested the inquiry in a motion that asked, “How many employees worked on the ArriveCan app?”The inquiry said in addition to 38 CBSA staff, another 35 Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) employees “at some point” logged an undisclosed number of hours on the project.Federal managers repeatedly defended the costly program as “life-saving.”“It was value for money. As far as I am concerned it saved lives,” Chief Federal Technology Officer Minh Doan testified November 14 at the Commons Government Operations Committee.Committee Chair Conservative MP Kelly McCauley challenged him to “provide something in writing to us quantifying that statement.”“We have heard repeatedly from people on the witness stand about how it has miraculously saved lives. Can you let us know how many?” said McCauley. Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski, who is a medical doctor, acknowledged the claim was unverifiable.“Having studied public health I would think that finding that evidence is going to be very difficult,” said Powlowski.PHAC previously acknowledged there was no proof ArriveCan saved lives. “The Agency cannot quantify the exact number of lives indirectly saved through ArriveCan,” PHAC wrote in a report to the committee December 7. “Without the use of restrictive measures and without high levels of vaccination Canada could have experienced higher numbers of infections and hospitalizations.”CBSA originally budgeted ArriveCan at $6.3 million. Auditor General Karen Hogan in a February 12 report put ArriveCan expenses at $59.5 million — but said investigators were “unable to calculate the exact cost” due to missing paperwork.“I am deeply concerned. We did not find records to accurately show how much was spent on what, who did the work or how and why contracting decisions were made,” Hogan earlier testified at the Commons Public Accounts Committee.
