When Canadians first heard about the ArriveCan app, most assumed it was just another pandemic-era tool an online form to confirm vaccination status when entering the country. What no one expected was that it would balloon into a $60-million fiasco, leaving taxpayers with more questions than answers.
Auditor General Karen Hogan has already revealed troubling details, three federal departments failed to keep proper financial records, and Canadians never got the best value for their money. That alone should be enough to shake confidence in how the government handles our tax dollars. But now Hogan is going further she will examine every federal contract given to GC Strategies, the tiny two-person firm that somehow landed more than $100 million in contracts, including its work on ArriveCan.
Think about that. Two people. Over $100 million in government work. And yet, instead of building the app themselves, GC Strategies was paid to find others to do the job. In other words, taxpayers were funding middlemen. If this doesn’t raise alarm bells about how Ottawa doles out contracts, what will?
The House of Commons unanimously asked Hogan to dig deeper, and thankfully she agreed. That rare moment of cross-party unity shows how serious this scandal has become. But Canadians should not simply wait for another audit report. The real issue here is bigger than one app, one company, or even one government. It’s about a system where contracts worth millions can be handed out with little transparency, oversight, or concern for value.
Every wasted dollar is a dollar that could have gone to healthcare, housing, or easing the cost of living. Instead, it went to consultants and contractors, wrapped in bureaucratic excuses. The ArriveCan saga is a symbol of how easily public money can vanish when no one is truly accountable.
Canadians deserve more than audits after the fact we deserve a contracting system that works in the public’s interest, not in the interest of well-connected firms. Until that happens, ArriveCan won’t just be remembered as a badly managed app. It will be remembered as proof that Ottawa’s spending habits are long overdue for reform.
