Exclusive documents reveal desperate attempts to increase uptake of Trudeau's largely unused COVID Alert app
'Everywhere you looked there was something telling you to download the COVID Alert app, and yet so many of you didn't,' said Sheila. 'It's stories like these that restore my faith in my fellow Canadians.'
The $20 million exposure notification app had only been downloaded 6.9 million times, and just 57,000 users who tested positive for COVID-19 notified others of possible exposure before it was decommissioned last summer.
According to the government, notifications "helped" identify 2,446 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at a cost of $8200 per confirmed case.
The documents, obtained by Rebel News through access to information filings, demonstrate attempted collaboration with Apple and Google to promote the app. Dozens of other companies were approached as well, including most of the chartered banks in Canada, Amex, multiple airlines, Walmart, and a video game association.
The feds sent posters to high schools to encourage kids to download the COVID tracing app onto their phones and developed an Instagram sticker and a Twitter emoji to appeal to younger demographics.
Within the hundreds of pages of emails and internal communications, communications bureaucrats are searching for people who love the unloved app to use as part of a messaging push for Trudeau's daily Rideau cottage daily COVID press conferences. Their efforts were largely unsuccessful.
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