Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, ON.) repeatedly asked the prime minister to supply a list of all the contractors who worked on the controversial ArriveCAN app, which cost more than $54 million to develop.."It's good to know, but no surprise that the prime minister thinks $54 million is just a petty matter," Poilievre said during Wednesday Question Period.."Ten-thousand people were sent by that app wrongly into quarantine when they shouldn't have been, and many of the contracts went to 'companies' that have home addresses as their headquarters.".The ArriveCAN application, created in April 2020 to ensure travellers entering the country complied with pandemic border measures, morphed into a colossal headache for millions of Canadians. After an outcry from Conservative MPs, tourism and travel organizations and Canadians alike, the app became optional on October 1..Poilievre said a programmer showed the ArriveCAN app could have been created over a weekend for less than $250,000. The app was rebuilt during a "hackathon" in early October by the Toronto-based digital innovation lab TribalScale.."Will the prime minister provide the list of all companies that received tender contracts to provide this application that even didn't even work in the first place?".Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Liberals worked "tooth and nail" to keep Canadians safe throughout the pandemic, including through the ArriveCAN app. Trudeau pointed out the app's production cost includes more than just development fees, such as IT services, updates, and the operations of call centres.."On this side of the aisle, we will continue to put the safety and security of Canadians at the centre of everything we do in unprecedented pandemics, or in regular times," Trudeau said..Poilievre responded creating an expensive application does not protect anybody, especially "an app that sends 10,000 people wrongly into quarantine.".Poilievre added that the "strangest thing" about ArriveCAN was the dozen companies who got the contracts to supply the app..READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: ArriveCAN dispute leads to pregnant woman losing baby."The prime minister does not want to give all of the names of the subcontractors that got that money. I challenge him now to commit to supplying this house with the list of all the subcontractors who got the money who got rich," he said..Trudeau dodged the question and said the Liberals stepped up to deliver all the protections they could for Canadians during COVID-19.."We were there to have Canadians backs while Conservatives were peddling vaccine misinformation and refusing to follow public health directives. We stepped up and made sure Canadians had all the tools to deliver safe safety for them. That's what we will continue to do," he said.."They stepped up to put money in the pockets of their friends. We don't forget about the WE Charity," Poilievre responded.."Somebody got rich here, and many of the subcontractors are still secret.".Poilievre said if Trudeau wouldn't be transparent about the identity of the companies, "maybe he could tell us the name of the genius who spent that $54 million in an app that could have been designed in a weekend.".The prime minister responded the Liberal government's focus was on helping Canadians, which they did by spending "hundreds of billions of dollars," through direct income supports.."And we did that because we knew being there for Canadians through an unprecedented difficult time would ensure our economy would come back faster after, and that's exactly what happened. Mr. Speaker, we were there for Canadians while Conservatives can criticize us every step of the way."
