I'm very happy to explain. I was not personally responsible for ArriveCAN, but as a member of the CBSA's executive committee, I am accountable for the failures. We have already taken note of those failures and we have already started to deal with them.
In terms of ArriveCAN, it was managed by the border task force. Actually, the comptrollership branch was mainly focused on managing the internal task force during the COVID pandemic. These were very, very difficult times. People were crossing the border to return back to Canada, and we were told that we could catch COVID from touching documents. Our number one priority initially, working with PHAC, was to get the e-form up and running. That cost about $80,000. The comptrollership branch involvement in this one was really around making sure we had the funding available for that.
We recognize the comments made by the Auditor General. In year one, we did not have an accounting code, so we were not identifying the ArriveCAN cost separately. That is one of the reasons we have different cost estimates included in the numbers. In fact, that is also recognized in the OAG report itself, in paragraph 1.24. It identifies that $53 million was the estimate for the OAG for the public health component, with a further $6.2 million included for the customs and immigration declaration. We recognize that in year one we did not have the information available to us, so those were estimates in both cases.
That was our primary role in terms of the first year. We were looking after the finances, but we were also working extensively on the internal task force.