The RCMP has confirmed it is investigating the controversial ArriveCan app.
While speaking during a meeting of the committee on access to information, privacy, and ethics, Conservative MP Michael Barrett questioned two officials of the RCMP.
Staff Sergeant Fréderic Pincince told Barrett that the RCMP was reviewing the Auditor General’s report and would take action as required.
Despite the two officers’ reluctance to comment on an ongoing investigation, the RCMP’s Commissioner, Michael Duheme, confirmed during the meeting that the RCMP had an ongoing investigation into the ArriveCan scandal.
This comes after the Conservative Party has advocated for an investigation to be opened.
“Therefore be it resolved that common sense Conservatives call for a complete and thorough investigation to understand how millions were wasted, hold the guilty parties responsible, and scrap this disastrous app once and for all,” wrote the party.
Following the commissioner’s confirmation of the investigation during the committee meeting, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre shared a letter that he received from Duheme.
“The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is assessing all available information, including the Auditor General’s performance audit report, and will take appropriate action,” read the letter.
The RCMP’s letter to Poilievre came in response to a letter he sent them a week prior concerning the Auditor General’s report.
Poilievre’s letter highlighted egregious mishandling and potential corruption in the app’s development, which ballooned from a budget of $80,000 to nearly $60 million — 750 times over budget.
The Conservative leader’s letter came two days after Auditor General Karen Hogan released a report showing that ArriveCan cost Canadian taxpayers an estimated $59.5 million. Hogan said the final bill could be much higher due to the government’s poor record-keeping.
“In this audit, we found disappointing failures and omissions everywhere we looked,” said Hogan. “I believe that this audit of ArriveCan shows a glaring disregard for basic management practices.”
A previous investigation by the Procurement Ombudsman revealed that 76% of subcontractors that were part of the winning bid did no work on the contract.
Originally designed to curb the spread of COVID-19, the ArriveCan app mandated travellers to submit personal and vaccination details before entering Canada.
Of all the contractors that worked on ArriveCan, GC Strategies had the biggest price tag at $19.1 million.
GC Strategies has won approximately 140 federal government contracts totalling $258 million since Trudeau took office in 2015.
The company has four employees and operates out of a suburban basement.
A press release issued by the Conservative Party said that the ArriveCan scandal is just the tip of the iceberg.
“In 2022, third-party consultants like GC Strategies, were awarded $17.7 billion in contracts, while ordinary Canadians are struggling to pay for groceries or heat their homes.”
Another breaking story was released on Tuesday by La Presse. The news organization showed that another two-person firm was paid millions to do no IT work on the ArriveCan app. The firm, Dalian Enterprises, received $7.9 million from Ottawa for the development of ArriveCan.
The Globe and Mail calculated that the firm received $95.5 million from Ottawa between 2016 and 2023.
The firm opened two companies in tax havens known to promote the camouflage of money transfers and tax evasions, though any such money sheltering has yet to be proven.
Time will tell what the RCMP investigation reveals.
GC Strategies seems to have deactivated its website, and the two partners, Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony have seemingly deactivated their emails.
