Another spoke has been thrown into the ongoing ArriveCAN drama, which cost more than $54 million of taxpayers’ money to create.
Conservatives, backed by MPs Melissa Lantsman and Garnett Genuis, are claiming an additional $11 million was given by the Liberal government to two contractors who did “zero IT work [on the app].”
Genuis says the contractors, a two-team firm called GCstrategies, personally earned between $1.3 million and $2.7 million for hiring and assembling a programming team.
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“This scandal is fairly simple for the public to understand,” says Genuis. “You’ve got two people who run a company with zero other employees. They get hired by the government, they do no IT work. They subcontract the work and they get big cuts for themselves, over $11 million for ArriveCAN alone.”
The RCMP has been called in to investigate.
Last October, Canada’s controversial ArriveCAN app — which citizens were mandated to use to travel throughout the pandemic— made headlines when its $54 million price tag was made public.
Tech industry experts were shocked to hear that Ottawa had set aside $54 million to build the app over more than two years.
After the app’s price tag became public, Lazer Technologies, a tech company based out of Toronto, was able to clone the entire app in less than two days for a fraction of the federal cost.
Genuis, who tried to get answers at a House of Commons committee earlier this week, got no clear answers from the bureaucrats in charge in regards to where (and what) the money was used for.
The constituent for Sherwood Park is calling it the “ArriveScam” scandal.
Everyone is talking about the #ArriveScam Scandal.
The Liberal-NDP Government gave a sweetheart deal to a two-person company that saw them spend $54 million of taxpayer money to develop an app.
The company that got the deal did no IT work, and just subcontracted to others. They… pic.twitter.com/WvAxAbpQIm
— Garnett Genuis (@GarnettGenuis) October 25, 2023
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said it was reported that initially, the ArriveCAN app was to cost “only $80,000, but ended up costing about 500 times more than it should have been.”
In the House, Poilievre repeatedly asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whether or not he would cooperate with the RCMP in the ArriveCAN criminal investigation, claiming the PM is “trying to divide Canadians in order to distract from the costs and corruption he has imposed upon them.”
Trudeau responded that Poilievre was actually the one dividing Canadians on a “matter core to public health and public safety.”
Genuis says an investigation will unfold and says the Liberal-NDP government “must be held accountable for paying out millions after a misconduct complaint had been made.”
1 HOUR TO GO
Conservatives will question whistleblowers on new #ArriveScam revelations.
The Liberal-NDP Government must be held accountable for paying out millions AFTER a misconduct complaint had been made. pic.twitter.com/gtP0igN3Wo
— Garnett Genuis (@GarnettGenuis) October 26, 2023
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