Border agency says it has slashed outside contractors since ArriveCan scandal (2024)

OTTAWA — The president of the Canada Border Services Agency said the agency responsible for developing ArriveCan has reduced the number of outside consultants it employs after the disastrous experience with the app.

Erin O’Gorman told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that the agency has been trying to keep more information technology work in-house since the debacle with ArriveCan, where costs skyrocketed for outside developers even as the app proved glitchy and unpopular.

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“We’ve reduced our consulting footprint; at the start of the fiscal year we had 25 fewer consultants than at the same time last year, and today we have 68 fewer consultants working in the CBSA,” she said.

O’Gorman told committee members at the end of the meeting that the border agency had reduced the number of outside IT consultants to 175, down from 243 a year at the same time in 2023.

After months of media reporting on the ArriveCan scandal, the auditor general found earlier this year that the app’s development was so poorly managed that it was difficult to pin down exactly how much it cost, but it was likely around $60 million. The original cost for the app had been pegged by the government at $80,000. The auditor general also found that government workers had not declared gifts and consideration from developers that had the potential to create a conflict of interest.

The app was required for people who crossed into Canada either at land or air borders during the pandemic. In addition to the cost overruns, the app sent thousands of people mistakenly into quarantine. Development had been contracted to GC strategies, a two-person IT staffing firm that subcontracted the work to other IT companies. There is now an ongoing RCMP investigation into the app’s development process, two former CBSA pubic servants have been suspended from their jobs, and the contractors have been deemed ineligible for government contracts for the time being.

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One of the developers, it turned out, was working as a government employee while his company was winning ArriveCan contracts from the government.

O’Gorman said the border agency has strengthened conflict-of-interest rules for contractors and employees to ensure no one working on a contract is also working for the government.

“We will also be requiring vendors with active IT service contracts to certify that none of the resources they provide to CBSA is actively employed as public servants,” she said.

She said while the government has reduced the number of IT contracts, she said the border agency will always needs some outside help, but is trying to ensure that consultants also provide information to CBSA staff.

“It wouldn’t be economical or feasible to higher all the depth of IT talent we need,” she said. “We are making a concerted effort to have a knowledge transfer.”

Conservative MP John Nater also asked what documents had been turned over to the RCMP and which employees were being interviewed. O’Gorman said she was not tracking the RCMP investigation into her agency, which Nater questioned.

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“Your lack of curiosity about an ongoing criminal investigation involving your department is surprising,” Nater said.

O’Gorman said the RCMP don’t report to her and investigators can have any information they need for their investigation.

“It’s not a lack of curiosity. It’s a respect for the police investigation,” she said. “If I asked employees to report to me on what documents they may have provided to the RCMP or interviews I would be sitting here being accused of interfering in a police investigation.”

National Post
rtumilty@postmedia.com

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