Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee.
I would like to thank the Auditor General and the procurement ombud for their reports, which have identified some important lessons for us all. The Canada Border Services Agency has already implemented a number of actions to address their recommendations.
At the onset of the pandemic, the CBSA was focused on protecting our borders while maintaining the flow of essential travellers and trade. The agency needed to adapt its operations at a time of considerable uncertainty over health risks.
The need for ArriveCAN arose quickly when it became clear that the manual paper-based processes for tracking contact tracing and the health information of travellers did not meet the needs of the Public Health Agency of Canada. PHAC asked the CBSA to assist it by developing a digital form. The first version of ArriveCAN was released six weeks later.
Over the following two and a half years, the CBSA responded to the changing health requirements set out in over 80 orders in council by releasing 177 different versions of the app. The agency has estimated that the border health measures related to the ArriveCAN app cost $55 million, including a number of non-IT costs, such as $6 million for the Service Canada call centre.
The Auditor General's and procurement ombud's reports have identified a number of serious weaknesses in the procurement and internal controls processes. We have accepted their recommendations and our management response plans are already under way. I would like to highlight a few of those actions aimed at strengthening the agency’s governance and assurance functions.
We have strengthened the first line of defence by requiring all HQ staff with financial delegations to retake four procurement training courses to help them better understand their responsibilities.
Given the weaknesses in procurement oversight, we have established a new executive procurement review committee to strengthen the second line of defence by reviewing all contracts and task authorizations over $40,000.
We have also established a new procurement centre of expertise, which is developing an ongoing program of quality assurance reviews to ensure compliance with the directive, with a particular focus on the need for proper record-keeping.
Our management response plans are aligned with the plans of other government departments, as developing the ArriveCAN app was a shared responsibility. The agency leveraged PSPC’s contracting authorities for over 30 of those contracts and Shared Services Canada's for seven contracts. The CBSA was the contracting authority for the remaining four contracts.
In the first year, the agency was responsible for managing the development, enhancement and operations of the ArriveCAN app on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada. However, no new funding was received in the 2020-21 financial year, and the costs were coded to a general COVID-19 pandemic measures account, which would have included other pandemic-related expenditures, such as personal protective equipment and enhanced cleaning.
The agency did establish a dedicated financial code in the second year, when funding was provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. In hindsight, this should have been created earlier.
I am very proud of my employees, colleagues and the frontline border services officers who served Canada throughout the pandemic. We acknowledge the serious deficiencies and we welcome the lessons learned. We are now focused on addressing the recommendations that have been made.
We would be pleased to answer any questions.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
