SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 301

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 17, 2024 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Michael Barrett (Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, CPC)
  • Apr/17/24 3:42:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, ArriveCAN was supposed to cost taxpayers $80,000, but the NDP-Liberal government rewarded consultants and insiders, who got rich on taxpayer dollars for an app that nobody wanted. The app erroneously forced more than 10,000 people into house arrest. It did not work, and the Auditor General said it cost at least $60 million. ArriveCAN is now under 13 federal investigations. Two middlemen who do no IT work got rich in a corrupt system under the NDP-Liberal government. Some, including the witness today, became multi-millionaires. GC Strategies is a two-person company, and it claims to find people who actually do the work by using LinkedIn. Nearly $20 million for ArriveCan is what the company was paid, roughly $2,500 per hour. The people have been paid $100 million since forming GC Strategies just after the Liberal Prime Minister was elected. This is eight years under the Liberal Prime Minister. The Liberal government has been ordered to collect and recoup all funds paid to ArriveCAN contractors and subcontractors who did no work on the ArriveCAN app. Has the government asked Mr. Firth to repay the money paid to GC Strategies on ArriveCAN?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Michael Barrett
  • Apr/17/24 3:44:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the procurement watchdog found “numerous examples where [GC Strategies] had simply copied and pasted” information to prove the people GC Strategies found to do work on ArriveCAN actually did it. Has the government asked GC Strategies to repay the money paid to GC Strategies for ArriveCAN?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Kristian Firth
  • Apr/17/24 3:49:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, can I get clarification? Is that period, or during the ArriveCAN application?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Michael Barrett
  • Apr/17/24 3:50:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is not an answer to the question I asked. Does Mr. Firth have any knowledge of or involvement in the reviews for the ArriveCAN app on either the Apple store or the Google Play store being artificially amplified or paid for, any knowledge at all?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mrs. Kelly Block (Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, CPC)
  • Apr/17/24 3:50:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the procurement ombudsman found that 76% of resources named in bids on the ArriveCAN contracts did no work and were switched out for other companies. He termed this “bait and switch”, which is often used to sub out expensive subcontractors for cheaper ones, allowing the middlemen to take home more profit. Did Mr. Firth switch out any of his proposed resources on the ArriveCAN application contracts?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Taylor Bachrach
  • Apr/17/24 4:12:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are deeply troubled by the allegations and revelations surrounding the ArriveCAN app. Could Mr. Firth, in his own words, describe what those concerns are, precisely?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Kristian Firth
  • Apr/17/24 4:12:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not think I can, to be honest. I do not know the allegations and accusations around the ArriveCAN app. We used the first three national security exemption contracts. Actually, only two of them, the first and the third, were used to build the ArriveCAN application. I am not being disrespectful. I may not understand the question, but I think I am answering it honestly.
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Kristian Firth
  • Apr/17/24 4:52:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hours that we were quoting were specific to ArriveCAN. We had 22 other departments and other contracts we were working on at that time. I would like to also remind everyone that we were picked. We did not solicit. We provided services; over 50 resources were in there and delivered on 170 releases on the application.
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Blake Desjarlais
  • Apr/17/24 4:59:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, does Mr. Firth believe that the work his company, GC Strategies, has done in relation to ArriveCAN was good money for Canadians' dollars?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Kristian Firth
  • Apr/17/24 5:00:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not questioning the report. Again, it is the inputs that were given to the report. There is a big delta between the $19.1 million the AG's report claimed that we used to build the application versus the $11 million, but because of the financial system and the tagging for other projects associated, because these contracts were pandemic response contracts and were not specific to the ArriveCAN app, I can understand why there is the discrepancy.
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Blake Desjarlais
  • Apr/17/24 5:05:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in what capacity was Mr. Firth involved in developing and contributing to the CBSA requirements for the ArriveCAN contract?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Peter Julian
  • Apr/17/24 5:32:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know this: Did Mr. Firth meet with any members of Parliament during the process for the RFP for the contract for ArriveCAN or during the contract process?
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Kristian Firth
  • Apr/17/24 5:36:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the answer is correct to both of those. I had no influence at all on the contract award, and I had no influence on the ArriveCAN scandal.
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Context: House Hansard - 301 - Apr/17/24
Mr. Kristian Firth
  • Apr/17/24 5:37:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Botler contract was in no way related to the ArriveCAN application. Furthermore, I made a margin of zero dollars on the Botler opportunity.
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