ArriveScam: The Liberal’s latest multimillion dollar boondoggle
By Lethbridge Herald on March 2, 2024.
FROM THE HILL
Rachael Thomas – Conservative Member of Parliament for Lethbridge
How much would you be willing to pay for a phone app?
Most of us download dozens of free apps but hesitate once the cost hits one dollar.
What about a $60 million app?
“WTF?” was asked in question period recently in the House of Commons.
This commonly understood acronym was given a new meaning when the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, posed it to the Prime Minister. The Speaker of the House asked Mr. Poilievre to clarify, and he did.
“Where’s the Funds?”
The question is about the latest Liberal boondoggle, the ArriveCan app, or as it has come to be known: ArriveScam.
ArriveScam marks another disastrous example of Mr. Trudeau’s costly and corrupt government.
This was the flagship app the Liberals pushed on Canadians as part of their COVID strategy. This is an app that Canadians did not want and did not need. And to make matters worse, it did not work. It caused thousands of travelers and workers to be quarantined, falsely detained, and harassed without reason.
The app was dysfunctional from the get-go and it was a nightmare to use. My office heard from many of you who missed work and other important events because the app falsely instructed you to quarantine or caused other issues.
Then there was the actual cost of the app. The Prime Minister told Canadians it would only cost $80 thousand. Instead, an earth-shattering report by the Auditor General reveals the cost of the app turned out to be 750 times greater than what the Prime Minister promised.
Of the $60 million wasted on ArriveScam, nearly $19 million went to a small consulting firm named GC Strategies. This ‘firm’ is a company headquartered in a house basement and, at the time of the app being built, consisted of only two people.
After helping the Liberals by drafting the application requirements for the IT grant, the company was awarded the money. If it smells fishy to you, it’s because it is.
When GC Strategies was questioned about this debacle, the owners admitted they took the cash but did no work. Instead, they googled other companies that might be able to help them and subcontracted the project. The Auditor General’s report reveals that 76 percent of the ArriveScam contractors received payment but did nothing to contribute to the app’s creation.
The Auditor General’s report found the documentation from these contractors was so incomplete it was not even possible to accurately assess the final cost of the app. There was no paper trail and no solid way to find out how much money Canadians lost. $60 million is the minimum.
And it gets worse. The cozy deal between the Liberal government and GC Strategies extends well beyond the ArriveScam app. A recent article by La Presse indicates the Liberal government has awarded more than $258 million in contracts to this shady company during Mr. Trudeau’s time in office!
ArriveScam is one more example of crooked Liberal dealings that have left taxpayers with less money. Consider scandals like the We Charity scandal, the SNC-Lavalin scandal, or the Clam scam. In all three cases, the Prime Minister picked his friends to win contracts and make big money at the expense of Canadians.
Every day, my office hears from Canadians struggling to make ends meet. It is maddening to know the tax dollars collected on the backs of Canadians are going to the Prime Minister’s buddies, while more than two million people line up at food banks each month.
Conservatives ordered the owners of GC Strategies to committee to provide answers, but they refused the summons. Despite the Liberals doing all they could to stall our efforts, Conservatives finally passed a motion to arrest and drag those who are responsible for ArriveScam before the committee.
On Wednesday, we passed a motion forcing the Trudeau Government to refund Canadian taxpayers for the money they wasted on ArriveScam by reclaiming the money they paid to GC Strategies.
The Liberal government and GC Strategies must be held accountable for one of the biggest scams in Canadian history.
Only Conservatives are committed to ending the corruption in Ottawa and ensuring Canadians hear the truth.
24-23
arrivescam! oh, so funny! wow, so inventive! yes, it is a rip-off, but so it is with pretty much everything coming down from partisan, sleazy, greedy, self serving, egotistical, cunning, lying politicians. every govt we have ever had in power does it to the masses. but, as bad as the arrivecan app scandal is, it is not near as bad as the handing over of prisoners in afghanistan under harper’s watch, at least not in terms of human rights, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. just to add some perspective.
Rachael Thomas is correct to be upset that the Arrive Can App proved to be such an expensive scam. She is upset about 60M CDN dollars. Rightly so.
Rachael Thomas is entirely WRONG in suggesting that the Conservatives would be any better in reducing corruption and managing the federal finances any better than Trudeau’s Liberals. If we simply use the the example of the Harper Conservative federal government that suggestion becomes hard to believe in marked fashion! (Note that Pierre Poilievre was a key member of that government.) This Harper Conservative government, among other egregious spending and administration fiascoes, oversaw the purchase and implementation of the Phoenix Pay system for federal employees. The last that I saw was that this Phoenix fiasco has cost Canadian Taxpayers 2 Billion CDN dollars — not million Rachael, BILLION. A LOT of 60M dollar lumps can go into 2 Billion !!!! And it has cost far more Canadians grief than the Arrive Can app ever did. The fact that the Harper government ignored warnings from Australian counterparts about the Phoenix system and chummied up to the developers cries out corruption. Arrive Can is “One of the biggest scams in Canadian History” — NOT EVEN CLOSE. Get a grip on reality Rachael. Once again you demonstrate your lack of interest in accuracy regarding facts.
The fact that numerous of Harper’s inner circle were charged with fraud end other acts of corruption during Stephen Harper’s time in power speaks for the lack of Conservative integrity.
The Robo Calls of Harper’s time speaks not of mere corruption, but this actual election interference by a Canadian political party was the equivalence of TREASONOUS behaviour by the Conservative government.
Corruption ? Unethical leadership ? Indeed if you look forward to even more flagrant examples of these behaviours elect another Con government.
(FYI: I am not a fan of Justin Trudeau, but I would rather have the far lesser of two evils at the helm of my country.)