ArriveCan, the formerly mandatory Public Health Surveillance app which Canadian travellers had to download to enter back to Canada, cost up to $54 million to develop; double the amount the Liberals initially admitted to.

GC strategies got rich by spearheading the development of the flawed health surveillance app. According to reports in the National Post:

The two partners of an Ottawa firm that was the largest single contractor on the federal government’s controversial ArriveCan app say they personally earned between $1.3 million and $2.7 million for hiring and assembling a programming team.

GC Strategies billed the government $9 million over two years, with most of that money being paid out to software engineers and others who actually built components of ArriveCan, the company’s managing partner, Kristian Firth, told a parliamentary committee.

An order paper inquiry by Conservative MP Warren Steinley, found that GC strategies, a firm with fewer than 5 employees operating out of a rural house outside Ottawa,was the recipient of 334 pages of contracts.

Justice paid GC Strategies $96,000 for an ATIP search system

ECCC paid GC Strategies $600,000 resulting from 25 contracts to do national assessments of climate change impacts.

TwoToronto tech companies were able to clone the ArriveCan app in under 48 hours.