Mr. Speaker, today I rise on behalf of all the Canadians who are feeling increasingly skeptical, disappointed and disillusioned with politics across the country. Scandals like the one raised by the Auditor General of Canada are good examples that fuel this feeling of discouragement. ArriveCAN, or “arrive scam”, as many call it, is a government program that was mismanaged. It is a perfect example of wasted public funds, favouritism and profound disrespect for people who work hard to earn a living, pay their mortgage, pay for groceries and transportation, and who pay their taxes respectfully and in good faith so that Canada can prosper.

What do we really owe them? Let us keep in mind that the purpose of the app was to safeguard national security at a critical time in our recent history. The app was supposed to collect personal information, such as contact information, health status, proof of vaccination and even quarantine plans. The app was also supposed to track mandatory quarantines. It was a system of exchange between the government and our citizens. The app was supposed to speed up customs processes and security at our borders, enforce public health policies, limit the transmission of the virus and make it easier for our border officers to do their job. That is a lot. It was also meant to serve as a temporary vaccine passport.

Some will say that there was a crisis, that it was a crucial time, that it was a matter of national security, and that the government should be given a free pass. I will say one thing: If someone's house is on fire and their first instinct is to call their brother-in-law who is a plumber or painter, that means that their instincts are bad and their priorities are out of whack. That is what happened. At a critical time, the government awarded contracts to a two-person company that did not even have the skills to do what was required.

However, Canada has plenty of good, reliable and reputable companies. To name just a few, there is CGI, a great Montreal company with 95,000 employees; OpenText, a Waterloo company with 23,000 employees; and Constellation Software, a Toronto company with 56,000 employees. Perhaps the government wanted to support small businesses. Perhaps that was the objective. Here are a few of those: Cohere, a Toronto company with 300 employees; Appnovation, a Vancouver company with 402 employees; and Nexapp, a Quebec company with nearly 100 employees.

However, the government chose that particularly intense and historic moment to do business with a two-person company, a shell company, despite the fact that Canada's contracting policies are extremely clear. There are six easy steps. First, assess needs. What is the goal? Analyze the risks, the options and the budget, which is still a problem, apparently. Next, issue a call for tenders to evaluate the most suitable companies. Once again, there are technical requirements, deadlines and a budget. Officials receive and assess costing, relevance, the company's experience—sorely lacking in this case—capacity for execution and conflicts of interest. Here again, a lot of these pieces were missing. Then, the government awards the contract to the company that offers the greatest benefit for Canadians, not for its cronies. Lastly, the government ensures delivery. It monitors the execution of the contract and pays when the product is delivered. There is no prepayment for something that has not been delivered.

We are not talking about a mistake here. We are talking about a choice to govern with no rigour, respect, technical skills or transparency. They gave $60 million to a two-person company that did not have the required knowledge, reputation or respect of its peers in its field. It is clear proof of the government's total contempt for Canadians and Canadian families, who were struggling then and are still struggling today with inflated prices thanks to the inflationary policies of the past 10 years.

We are still hearing excuses today in the House. The Liberals say that they put a stop to all that, and so on. However, this reminds me of an arsonist firefighter who lights fires, puts them out and then pats themselves on the back. Contracts are not awarded by just anyone. They are awarded by the government. It must have known exactly what it was doing. This is reminiscent of other Liberal scandals. Take, for example, the Aga Khan affair, involving the Christmas vacation of our former prime minister, who was ultimately the first Prime Minister to breach federal ethics rules.

There was also the SNC‑Lavalin affair. Our former prime minister intervened directly with the Department of Justice to get a deal for a company that had donated money to his election campaign.

Think of the WE Charity scandal, where the Liberals entrusted the management of the Canada student service grant, a $912‑million program, to an organization with ties to the Trudeau family.

Another example from around the same time is the Frank Baylis affair. The former Liberal MP's company secured a $237‑million contract to supply ventilators, which was $100 million more than the cost of similar equipment available at the time.

Think of ArriveCAN. This app was supposed to help Canadians travel while protecting the population from the potential spread of the virus, but it was a failure. The project was a money pit. More than anything, it became a symbol of gross mismanagement of public funds. The revelations speak for themselves: $100 million was pre-approved for a company with only two employees; $59 million was paid without any real traceability; $20 million was handed over for an app that did not even work; there was no certification process; 46% of the money was paid without any evidence of work being performed.

GC Strategies, a two-person company, received contracts from 31 different departments. It got 106 contracts amounting to $92.7 million. When it comes to ArriveCAN, 177 versions were released without any prior testing. That resulted in 10,000 travellers being needlessly quarantined. They suffered lost wages and personal stress for no reason at all. Ethical rules were flouted, and the interests of Canadians were not protected.

If we take a closer look at the history, the first contract was for $2.35 million. I personally contacted firms to see if that made sense. I was told it was far-fetched, but that the first contract was still plausible. In 2022, as the whole world was slowly emerging from the crisis, the government awarded GC Strategies a contract that was 10 times bigger, worth $25 million. GC Strategies' employees won the contract by taking part in creating the contract themselves. First they defined the bid criteria, then they submitted their own bid, and then they got the $25‑million contract.

Here is another interesting fact: GCStrategies billed an extra 15% to 30% profit margin while subcontracting out the rest of the work. No one down the line was working at cost, without trying to make a profit. On average, tech firms expect to make a 15% to 20% profit from their activities. There were six different subcontractors. If we do the math, that means six people each charging a 15% to 20% profit, with another 15% to 30% profit layer on top of that. At that rate, the staggering costs come as no surprise.

Canadians demand transparency, competency and a sense of responsibility. The sound management of public finances rests on three pillars: a transparent and competitive bidding process, strict monitoring of every dollar spent, and real, harsh penalties for anyone who recklessly squanders public funds.

Our motion is clear. We are calling on the government to get taxpayers their money back within 100 days and ban companies like GCStrategies for life. I think we should also add that the people who participated in this wrongdoing should not be encouraged; they should be punished.

Gabriel Hardy

Transcript

Government Orders

Discussions (0)