44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 15, 2024 10:00AM
- Feb/15/24 2:16:53 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the $60-million arrive scam app is just like the Prime Minister after eight years: not worth the cost, not worth the corruption.
The Auditor General's report and its shocking findings are truly a metaphor for eight years of Liberal mismanagement, incompetence and utter disregard for hard-working Canadians.
What did Canadians receive for their hard-earned tax dollars? A dysfunctional app that was 750 times over budget, required 177 updates, forced 10,000 people into quarantine by error, caused chaos at our borders and ruined any chance of a tourism recovery in 2022.
We have now learned from the press that GC Strategies, one of the companies involved in this arrive scam, has received a quarter of a billion from the Liberal government since 2015.
That is enough. Canadians deserve better. It is time for those scandalous Liberals to step aside and let a Conservative government restore the confidence of the public in its federal government.
160 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:19:02 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party is focusing on its common-sense plan to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost or the arrive scam corruption. The RCMP is conducting an investigation. The Auditor General met with the police and said that they will need a court order to obtain all the documents.
Will the Prime Minister hand over the documents related to the arrive scam app and GC Strategies so that we can get to the truth?
91 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:19:43 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, our colleague is right to highlight the important work of the Auditor General, who tabled a scathing report on Monday. We are grateful for that. Many of her recommendations are already in place. Others will be carried out over the next few weeks.
As she has said, all this information is transparent and has been shared, including with the RCMP.
62 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:20:07 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, that is not what the Auditor General said. After she exposed the arrive scam with the $60 million in spending that she was able to find, she said that the RCMP, with which she just met about the scandal, will now have to go to court to get a production order to get all of the documents that the Prime Minister is covering up.
If the Prime Minister really has nothing to hide in the arrive scam affair, then why will he not release the documents to both the police and the parliamentary committees investigating so we can get to the bottom of this scandal?
107 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:20:49 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, after having thanked and lauded the work of the Auditor General, our colleague would certainly not want to pretend that she is not able to do her job. Her integrity and independence are essential to the work of the government. We are grateful for what she does and for what she will be able to continue doing.
59 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:21:56 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition knows very well that the government is collaborating with parliamentary committees and the Office of the Auditor General. The Border Services Agency is doing an internal review, an investigation with respect to many of these matters, and officials have from the very beginning referred, to the RCMP, any and all information they think might be appropriate for the RCMP to investigate.
The government will always cooperate with these lawful authorities to ensure that they can do the work that Canadians properly expect them to do.
92 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:23:13 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we thought that this level of exaggeration would be exclusive to the Leader of the Opposition. I cannot speak for Mr. Mulcair.
What I can tell Canadians is that the government takes these circumstances extraordinarily seriously. We accept the recommendations of the Auditor General. We have at all times worked with parliamentary committees and senior officials to ensure that they have the tools necessary to investigate these matters and, of course, to hold to account those who may have done something inappropriate.
90 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:27:01 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, our colleague is completely right. An investigation was and is necessary. That is exactly what the Auditor General has worked on over the last few months. She had access—and rightfully so—to all the necessary information to do her work.
We are grateful to her for her report. Obviously, we are appalled by what the report says. That is all the more reason to continue to implement her important recommendations.
75 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:32:46 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost or the corruption, and his arrive scam app is just like the Liberal government: costly and corrupt.
Look at the facts: two buddies, a basement office and an IT company that does no IT work yet got a $20-million contract for IT. Now the Auditor General tells us that she cannot track all the costs, saying, “We didn't find records to accurately show how much was spent on what, who did the work, or how and why...decisions were made.”
Will the Prime Minister order his officials to turn over all the documents, stop blocking this investigation and call for a full RCMP investigation?
118 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:33:25 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it may surprise my hon. friend, but the government does not actually direct the national police in terms of investigations. We have confidence that the RCMP will take the important responsibility it has seriously and do all of the work that is required. We have complete faith in the RCMP's independence and in its ability to look into all these matters.
More importantly, the government is also always available to work with parliamentary committees and the Auditor General's Office to ensure that every document is available so this important matter can be resolved.
97 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:34:08 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals voted against calling in the Auditor General in the first place and blocked multiple attempts at committees to get to the truth. While the rest of the country viewed the pandemic as a difficult time full of hardship, the Liberals saw it as an opportunity to enrich their friends. They got caught funnelling a billion dollars to the WE organization. A former Liberal MP got a sole-source contract worth millions from the pandemic. Now we find out that the Liberals' app cost 750 times what it should have, did not work and was not needed.
The Auditor General says the RCMP is going to have to get a court order to get the documents. Why should it take a warrant for Canadians to find out what the Liberals did with their money?
137 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:34:44 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it does not take a warrant for Canadians to see that the government has been transparent, both with the Auditor General and with parliamentary committees.
The facts may bother my friend, but he knows very well that the Auditor General is empowered to do all of this important work. We have accepted the report of the Auditor General. We acted on a number of recommendations before receiving the report because we asked the procurement ombudsperson to look into this matter. We value the importance of respecting taxpayers' money and will always do that.
95 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:35:23 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, where was the minister on November 1, 2022? Here in the House, there was a vote on a request by the official opposition and the member for Carleton, the Conservative leader, for the Auditor General to analyze the arrive scam situation. What did the Liberals do? What did the minister do? They voted against that request.
Today, we are asking for access to all the documents. Will the minister once again hide under a rug and vote against this, or will he, for once, step up with the dignity we expect from this government and allow the whole truth about the arrive scam scandal to come out?
110 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:36:06 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, my colleague stressed the importance of the Auditor General's work, and rightly so.
The good news is that she tabled a report on Monday with some troubling findings and solid recommendations that we are now implementing or continuing to implement.
The member says she is hiding under a rug. That is not true. The Auditor General is in contact with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and all the other organizations, including internal ones, that will need the information she was able to gather.
86 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:36:35 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the good news is that the Auditor General did her job.
The bad news is that the government did not want her to do her job. Let us imagine what would have happened otherwise. People would just shrug off the fact that ArriveCAN turned out to be a washout, but it would be no big deal. In fact, ArriveCAN is the biggest scandal in Canadian history. That is the reality.
The original $80,000 contract ultimately ballooned to at least $60 million. Today, the Liberals are feigning outrage and saying we need to launch an investigation. Where were the Liberals on November 1, 2022, when it should have been investigated?
114 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:37:13 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, not only did the Auditor General do her job, she did a very good job. We appreciate the work she did and will draw from it. It will help us continue implementing the measures we need, even in times of crisis when situations are extremely complicated for everyone, including Canadians, and when quick action is essential.
In these times of crisis, like all other times of crisis, the basic rules of sound management of the public service still hold.
81 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:42:59 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, the member pointed out, again, correctly, the importance of investigations.
The good news is that there was an investigation by the Auditor General just a few weeks and months ago. There was an important report tabled on Monday with findings that are totally unacceptable, even in the context of the worst pandemic that we have seen in over a century, the worst economic crisis that we have seen since the 1930s.
The findings are unacceptable, and that is why we are going to keep implementing all the recommendations in the Auditor General's report.
96 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/15/24 2:43:37 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, after eight years, this government is not worth the cost or the corruption. It awarded the ArriveCAN contract to GC Strategies, a four-employee company that does not even do IT work, for an app that was supposed to cost $80,000 but, according to the Auditor General, may have cost more than $60 million, or 750 times as much. That is what I call gross incompetence.
Politically, who is going to take responsibility for this incompetence? Will we ever get back the money lost due to this incompetence?
92 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
