Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called the Auditor General’s report on ArriveCan contracts issued under the Trudeau government a “chronicle of Liberal incompetence and an orgy of Liberal waste.”
Auditor General Karen Hogan published an audit of 106 additional contracts awarded to GCStrategies by the Trudeau government and determined that federal organizations failed to adhere to procurement and security rules.
“Actions of the federal government frequently did not demonstrate value for money,” reads the report published on Tuesday. “The federal government made payments without evidence that all the deliverables were received.”
Of the contracts examined, 46 per cent were found to bear no evidence that the work was ever completed, yet payments were still made.
The company behind the controversial ArriveCan app was awarded contracts by 31 federal organizations between 2015 and 2024.
“The contracts were for IT even though GCStrategies does not actually do IT work,” Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.
“The government overpaid. They often didn’t even check what the market rate was for the services they were buying.”
GCStrategies was granted the lion’s share of those contracts, but Hogan said her findings cast doubt that such reckless misspending is “unique.”
“I said it back then, and I’ll repeat it now: I have no reason to believe that this is unique to two vendors,” said Hogan. “And that’s why I believe the government needs to take a step back and look at why this behaviour is happening.”
Poilievre noted how many of the MPs who signed off on these contracts have since been promoted under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“Who’s responsible?” asked Poilievre. “At the time, Public Safety Minister LeBlanc helped get these contracts out, now he’s been promoted in the Liberal government. You’ve got Patty Hajdu, who was the health minister who kicked off the ArriveCan app, she as well has been promoted.”
When asked whether he thought there should be punitive measures for public servants and politicians who awarded money for work that was never completed, Poilievre said, “They should be fired.”
“Politicians should be held accountable as well,” said Poilievre. “I just listed all of the Liberal ministers that were in charge of these various departments that went ahead and spent this money even though it was unnecessary. We didn’t need it, and it cost a fortune.”
Poilievre accused the Liberal government of having a habit of “promoting politicians who waste people’s money and screw up people’s lives.”
According to the report, the maximum value of the contracts reviewed was worth more than $90 million, with $65 million of that being paid out.
“We need to get the money back for taxpayers,” said Poilievre.
The report also found that in 33 per cent of the contracts, federal organizations “could not show that contract resources had the experience and qualifications needed to complete the required work.”
Federal organizations failed to monitor contract work and performance throughout the process.
Additionally, these departments failed to prove that fees paid didn’t exceed market rates in over 80 per cent of the contracts.
Hogan’s report didn’t include any recommendations because she said that the rules are not in need of an update; they simply need to be followed.