Conservative Party leader Pierre Polivre today introduced a motion in the House of Commons to audit the federal government’s spending of $54 million on the ArriveCan app.
“It wasn’t necessary and it didn’t work. We could have paid just $250,000 instead of $54 million,” he said of the app in the House of Commons on Nov. 1.
Two Canadian tech companies recreated ArriveCan between October 7th and October 10th to show the federal government wasting money on the project. Shortly thereafter, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) released a breakdown of government spending on the app, claiming that only $80,000 was used to develop ArriveCan.
Additional costs associated with updating and maintaining the app increased the price tag to a total of $54 million, according to CBSA.the government mentioned sync onis a Canadian technology company that provides cloud computing as one of the contractors hired to help develop and maintain ArriveCan.
But ThinkOn CEO Craig McLellan said it never received the government-listed $1.2 million ArriveCan contract. earth and mail October 20th.
“Where did this money go?” Poilievre asked in the House today, adding, “If Canadians can’t pay their bills, it’s outrageous to have them pay $54 million.”
“Best use”
poirivre motion It calls on the Canadian Comptroller General to “conduct a performance audit of all aspects of the ArriveCAN app, including payments, contracts and subcontracts, and give priority to this investigation.”
“It is more important than ever that governments respect taxpayer dollars and eliminate wasteful spending,” the motion said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently said the federal government’s ArriveCan is “optimally using” taxpayer dollars.
“Of course, this amount includes a lot more than developer fees,” Trudeau said during a question session in the House of Representatives on Oct. 19.
He later added that the federal government “is working every day and every night to ensure the best use of taxpayers’ money while protecting them.”
The founder of one of the companies that remade ArriveCan in just a week said professional software developers should always be able to create complex, fully integrated apps for under $1 million.
“The development effort here is minimal,” TribalScale founder Sheetal Jaitly says of ArriveCan. “This is a form that should be displayed on a mobile device and retrieve some information.”
“This is not difficult.”
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Peter Wilson is a reporter based in Ontario, Canada.