Those first six weeks were very, very difficult for the agency. The pandemic had been announced, and we were very much at the front line. We had individuals in the border services offices who were dealing with people who could have been infected by COVID-19. There were a number of repatriation flights.
The best we could do at that stage was to have a manual paper-based form. This was an issue for a lot of our officers, because we were being told at the same time that you could catch COVID from touching paper. It was an urgent matter to get this form digitized.
When you look at value for money, you see that the paper-based system was around three dollars per unit, whereas the ArriveCAN system is about one dollar per unit, or one dollar per traveller. It was more efficient than the paper-based system. It was actually also much more effective than the paper-based system. The paper-based system had to be sent off and it had to be coded into the records. It then had to be provided to PHAC, who then provided it to municipalities to actually follow up on the quarantine.
The Auditor General, in her own report, identifies that it was more effective to use ArriveCAN because they could get that information before the end of the 14-day period. With the paper-based system, it was taking up to three or four weeks to get that information. I think it is worth bearing in mind the effectiveness and the efficiency.
It was a very difficult time for all of us. As well, a large majority of our employees were sent home to work. That was a new thing for lots of us.
Therefore yes, I would say that at the start of the pandemic, it was a crisis situation. We were working incredibly long hours. During that time, I'm sure we made mistakes, and we should learn from those mistakes. It was a very stressful and difficult situation.