Canadian taxpayers were billed $411 million by the Liberal government to maintain their travel mandate regime.
Records obtained from the government by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner in a question on the order paper on Monday reveal the details.
Rempel Garner asked the government to provide “total costs” of Covid-19 testing for air travelers including details of the contracts.
“The final expenditure cannot be provided at this time as invoicing for services rendered is ongoing,” explained the Public Health Agency of Canada before breaking down the costs.
The Brampton-based company Dynacare/Dynacare-Gamma Laboratory received $120 million for “testing capacity” at borders in Manitoba and Quebec.
Meanwhile, Switch Health Holdings Inc. was paid $22.2 million for testing in Alberta and Atlantic Canada.
Biron Groupe Sante received funding to the tune of $74.8 million for border testing in Quebec, while LifeLabs LP cashed in on two contracts worth $100 million and $94.4 million respectively.
“Long after most countries around the world had stopped mandatory airport COVID testing, and while airlines, airport and the tourism industry were begging for Justin Trudeau to drop testing requirement – while air travelers to Canada suffered chaos at our borders, the Liberal government spend an appalling $411 million dollars for more mandatory COVID airport testing,” wrote Rempel Garner in a press release.
“This is shocking. While Canadians are struggling to afford to buy groceries and heat their homes, this waste of money is inexcusable. Canada’s tourism and airline industry – and Canadians in general – deserve an apology and an explanation.”
The price tag comes as the Liberal government faces criticism for how it handled the botched ArriveCan application for incoming travellers.
As reported by True North, costs for the app ballooned from an expected $80,000 to a whopping $54 million.
Conservatives have pushed the Liberals to reveal more information about the dozens of subcontractors employed to work and maintain the program after one tech firm listed by the government denied ever doing work on the app.
According to ThinkOn Inc CEO Craig McLellan his company was never approached by the government about ArriveCan despite being listed as the sixth largest subcontractor.
“It caught me by surprise. I think the amount of money they attributed to us was probably more than our total revenue generated within the federal government in the last fiscal year,” said McLellan.
