Tuesday June 10, 2025 | OTTAWA, ON – reporting from VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Today in the House of Commons the Opposition challenged Prime Minister Mark Carney about the contract with GC Strategies that was paid out for the ArriveCan app — what turned out to be an ineffective travel-related border control app during the pandemic.
The best Carney and later at least one of his ministers could offer is that the standard of prohibiting any further government contracts for seven years had been applied to GC Strategies.
That was clearly protection of the previous Liberal government’s choices in handling that contract which paid out about $64 million if a contracted amount of nearly $100 million.
Conservative MP Larry Brock (Brantford—Brant South—Six Nations) said : “The fraudulent payment of $64 million isn’t just about reckless spending it’s a total waste of taxpayer dollars and a betrayal of Canadians who are living through a cost of living crisis,” he said, adding: “So I ask the prime minister again — when will taxpayers get their money back?”
Carney switched gears by thanking the Opposition for supporting the “Making Life More Affordable Act”.
Carney frequently refers to his own government as “Canada’s new government”, as he did again today during Question Period in the House of Commons as a way to differentiate his leadership from that of the previous prime minister.
Auditor General’s report:
This matter of the ArriveCan app payments came up in the House of Commons today following a report by the Auditor General released today which detailed some numbers.
The auditor general found that 31 federal organizations issued 106 contracts to GC Strategies that were worth about $92.7 million; those were issued from April 2015 to March 2024. About $64.5 million was ultimately paid out by the government according to the report.
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