Treasury Board President Anita Anand told reporters Wednesday she did not have any responsibility for the nearly $60 million in ArriveCan contracts.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government voted to keep ArriveCan costs secret after Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre sponsored a motion demanding full accounting of the program, but were outvoted 170 to 149, according to Blacklock's Reporter. Anand was Minister of Public Works when the contracts were handed out for the failed ArriveCan government tracking program, making her responsible for federal contracting. However, Anand said, ArriveCan contracts “did not cross my desk.”“The issues rested with officials and did not come to me as minister,” said Anand, adding she was “highly concerned” with decisions officials made surrounding ArriveCan. “We need to know the truth,” said Poilievre in the House of Commons. “The Auditor General says she does not know how much was spent.”“It was at least $60 million,” he continued. “That is why we want the government to be obliged by the House to release all the documents, all the costs and to tell the truth. We want to know everybody who got rich through this corruption and how much Canadians actually had to pay.”.Auditor General Karen Hogan in a report released February 12 wrote “the bookkeeping I looked at is the worst I have seen, adding numerous records were unaccounted for. It was earlier documented at least 1,700 emails were destroyed and two Canada Border Services executives were suspended without pay. Auditors were “unable to calculate the exact cost,” said Hogan.The Trudeau Liberals have until March 18 to produce “a report detailing the complete direct and associated costs concerning the ArriveCan app incurred to date including the total amounts paid to contractors and subcontractors,” it was decided after the Commons vote. Within 100 days Cabinet will have to “recoup all funds paid to ArriveCan contractors and subcontractors which did no work on the ArriveCan app.”“The Bloc Québécois will be supporting this motion as a matter of principle,” said Bloc MP Luc Thériault. “This is an outrageous scandal.” NDP MP Charlie Angus said “Canadians deserve to know how a contract worth $59.5 million divided up through 32 companies for a program that did not work was allowed to go ahead.”“We ask ourselves how that was possible,” he added.
