'Arrive-scam' contractor under more fire over connection to federal COVID Alert app
Members of Parliament are further probing federal contracts awarded to GC Strategies, the two person company at the heart of the ArriveCAN scandal.
Legislators are demanding more records relating to the company's work on another COVID-19 era app rolled out by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, the now-retired COVID Alert app.
Records reveal GC Strategies was paid $1.4 million in December 2020 for “software development professional services” on the app, Blacklock's Reporter notes.
Did you ever download the COVID Alert app?
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“This was another app developed during the pandemic,” said Bloc Québécois MP Julie Vignola, who wondered how GC Strategies, which bills itself a consulting company, could “get in on these contracts.”
“Who was behind all of this?” Vignola asked the government operations committee. A motion put forward by Vignola was passed unanimously by the committee, calling on the Department of Works and Department of Health to: “produce all contracts, communication, memoranda, calls for tender and proposal submissions with GC Strategies in the context of the Covid Alert app.”
Conservative MP Michael Barrett says the Auditor General needs to investigate "every penny paid" to ArriveCan app developer GC Strategies after a new report revealed the two-person company has received $258M in gov't contracts since 2015.https://t.co/IRDTKvQkdt pic.twitter.com/sJLISG1fgJ
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“This committee has asked for production of papers in the hundreds of thousands of pages,” complained Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk. “The cost is tremendous. I mean, hundreds of thousands of documents.”
Conservatives on committee, meanwhile, mocked the Liberals' unwillingness to investigate in contrast to the exuberant funds doled out to GC Strategies.
Andrew Scheer takes aim at the Trudeau Liberals over the $60M ArriveCAN scandal and for giving wrongful quarantine orders.
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“[W]e see Liberals are so concerned about resources when it comes to the small matter of producing documents for a parliamentary committee but seem completely unconcerned about the use of resources involved in this scandal in the first place,” charged Garnett Genuis.
“Sixty million dollars spent on an app is no problem according to them, but trying to actually get the documents that would allow a parliamentary committee to investigate it is suddenly a resource issue.”
GCstrategies invoiced $53 million in federal contract work with more than 20 departments over the same period. He noted the company charges between 15% and 30% commission to hire temporary workers for federal departments.
— Rebel News Québec (@RebelNews_QC) January 24, 2023
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The House of Commons has been investigating GC Strategies and massive development costs associated with the ArriveCAN app. The two-man firm was awarded at least $19.1 million for development of the app, before subcontracting it out to suppliers with a 30% commission.
From the time of its launch on April 1, 2021, to its retirement on May 31, 2022, the COVID Alert app contributed to identifying “at least 2,446 confirmed cases of COVID-19,” according to government statistics.
Since the pandemic was declared, Canada has reported nearly 5,000,000 cases of COVID-19. Federal officials have until March 15 to return documents relating to the app to the committee.
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