Company linked to ArriveCan controversy got $107 million in federal contracts, official says

The company at the centre of the ArriveCan controversy has received more than $100 million in federal government contracts since 2011, says Canada’s comptroller general.

Roch Huppé told the House public accounts committee Wednesday morning that GC Strategies and its predecessor Coredal have been awarded 118 contracts totalling $107 million.

Media reports citing the federal government procurement database have suggested that GC Strategies alone received more than $200 million in government contracts.

A Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson told CBC News that contract entries in the database sometimes overlap — when changes are made to an existing contract already listed, for example.

Huppé told MPs that he has urged government departments to ensure the information in the procurement database is “complete and accurate.”

“Providing accurate and open information about our contracts is essential to safeguarding the trust that Canadians put in their institutions,” he said.

GC Strategies has faced heightened scrutiny ever since Auditor General Karen Hogan cited excessive reliance on contractors as a major factor contributing to ArriveCan’s ballooning costs.

Hogan’s report, released last month, estimates the project cost roughly $59.5 million. She also noted that the total cost is “impossible to determine” due to poor financial record-keeping.

The auditor general estimates that GC Strategies received $19.1 million for the project. But that estimate only includes money paid to the company up to March of last year.

The federal government launched ArriveCan in April 2020 to track health and contact information for people entering Canada during the pandemic, and to digitize customs and immigration declarations.

On Wednesday, Public Services and Procurement Canada announced that it had suspended GC Strategies’ security status, effectively banning the company from bidding on new contracts with security requirements.

The government suspended all contracts with GC Strategies in November.