Ottawa slammed over ArriveCan app

Cost of flawed project unknown because of lax CBSA record-keeping, auditor finds

- RAISA PATEL

The Liberal government launched ArriveCan in April 2020 at the onset of the pandemic to log proof of vaccination for travellers and help them comply with border measures.

Canada's auditor general has concluded that the federal government "repeatedly failed" to follow proper practices at every stage of launching the ArriveCan app, driving up costs for a tool with a price tag that cannot truly be known due to lax record-keeping.

"As a result of the many gaps and weaknesses we found in the project's design, oversight, and accountability, it did not deliver the best value for taxpayer dollars spent," wrote auditor general Karen Hogan in a report released Monday.

"The Canada Border Services Agency's documentation, financial records, and controls were so poor that we were unable to determine the precise cost of the ArriveCan application. Using the information that was available, we estimated the cost at approximately $59.5 million," Hogan added.

Of that total, the auditor general estimated that $53.3 million went toward aspects of the app related to the COVID-19 pandemic, with $6.2 million going toward the customs and immigration component of the tool.

The estimated amount exceeds the $54-million price tag first reported by the Globe and Mail in the fall of 2022 - a figure that eventually prompted a series of reviews and studies into how the app's costs ballooned from an initial $80,000 for the earliest versions of the smartphone and web-based tool. The number is also in excess of Ottawa's own accounting.

Speaking to members of the House of Commons public accounts committee, Hogan said ArriveCan's actual cost could be higher or lower than her office's estimate, but said it was impossible to know because she had been confronted with the worst bookkeeping she had seen in years.