Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government handed out $342,929 in bonuses to Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials in charge of the ArriveCan app. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CFT) obtained documents that show from March 2020 to September 2022, eight executives from PHAC were assigned to various roles in developing the program. Five of the eight received an “at-risk” bonus for 2020/21 and four of the eight received a “performance” bonus,” CTF reported. During the 2021/22 fiscal year six of the eight executives received an “at-risk” bonus and two received a “performance” bonus.The records, which were released following an order paper question from Conservative Member of Parliament Jeremy Patzer, state “it is not possible to discern what part of the bonus … would have been attributed to (work on) the ArriveCAN application.”“The government executives involved with ArriveCAN should be getting pink slips, not bonuses,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano. “This is the ultimate example of failing government executives being rewarded with taxpayer-funded bonuses.”“It doesn’t matter how good any of my other work is, if I blew a project so badly that it cost my company $54 million and became a national scandal, there’s no way I’d be getting a bonus,” Terrazzano said. .Officials from the Canada Border Services Agency were also working on the ArriveCAN program, but did not disclose how much in bonuses were paid out, if any. In November 2023, the ArriveCan scandal was investigated through a parliamentary committee, where CTF testified. “Taxpayers are out $54 million because of the ArriveCAN app,” Terrazzano said during the hearings. “Which bureaucrat is out of a job? Which bureaucrat is even out of a bonus?”The ArriveCAN program started in April 2020 at a proposed cost of $80,000, escalated to $54 million by October 2022. With the app still not up to par in November 2022, the Trudeau Liberals contracted independent tech experts to recreate the app over a single weekend, according to the CTF.The Auditor General is expected to release a report on ArriveCan February 12.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government handed out $342,929 in bonuses to Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials in charge of the ArriveCan app. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CFT) obtained documents that show from March 2020 to September 2022, eight executives from PHAC were assigned to various roles in developing the program. Five of the eight received an “at-risk” bonus for 2020/21 and four of the eight received a “performance” bonus,” CTF reported. During the 2021/22 fiscal year six of the eight executives received an “at-risk” bonus and two received a “performance” bonus.The records, which were released following an order paper question from Conservative Member of Parliament Jeremy Patzer, state “it is not possible to discern what part of the bonus … would have been attributed to (work on) the ArriveCAN application.”“The government executives involved with ArriveCAN should be getting pink slips, not bonuses,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano. “This is the ultimate example of failing government executives being rewarded with taxpayer-funded bonuses.”“It doesn’t matter how good any of my other work is, if I blew a project so badly that it cost my company $54 million and became a national scandal, there’s no way I’d be getting a bonus,” Terrazzano said. .Officials from the Canada Border Services Agency were also working on the ArriveCAN program, but did not disclose how much in bonuses were paid out, if any. In November 2023, the ArriveCan scandal was investigated through a parliamentary committee, where CTF testified. “Taxpayers are out $54 million because of the ArriveCAN app,” Terrazzano said during the hearings. “Which bureaucrat is out of a job? Which bureaucrat is even out of a bonus?”The ArriveCAN program started in April 2020 at a proposed cost of $80,000, escalated to $54 million by October 2022. With the app still not up to par in November 2022, the Trudeau Liberals contracted independent tech experts to recreate the app over a single weekend, according to the CTF.The Auditor General is expected to release a report on ArriveCan February 12.
