Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the hon. member's question.
The Government of Canada shares the member's concerns about alleged wrongdoing in our procurement process, as do all parliamentarians and Canadians across the country. This is why we voted in favour of the motion to call Mr. Firth to appear in the House to answer questions, and we trust that his testimony was fulsome and forthright in responding to those questions.
Canadians are equally concerned about what they have been hearing in the media and in the committee, and we are using many tools of inquiry and following many avenues as we seek to understand what went wrong in the case of ArriveCAN. It is frustrating that we have had to take the extraordinary measure of a public rebuke here in the House of Commons to get answers to those questions, but the government did vote in favour of doing so, and that consensus speaks to how seriously every member of the House takes the issue.
There is a complex network of people, policies and procedures in place to ensure that government contracts proceed efficiently, with clear value for taxpayer dollars, and when something goes awry, or worse, as it appears to have been the case with the ArriveCAN contracts awarded to GC Strategies, it is necessary to act decisively to restore trust in the system. The government has taken a number of actions in response to this issue, and I would like to detail a few of those actions.
Last November, at the request of the Canadian Border Services Agency, Public Services and Procurement Canada issued stop-work orders to GC Strategies, as well as Dalian and Coradix. This halted work on all active contracts with the CBSA while the various investigations moved forward. All departments and agencies with active contracts with these companies were asked to verify their CVs connected to those contracts and that the appropriate consent to use those CVs was obtained.
In March of this year, PSPC suspended the security status of GC Strategies and Dalian Enterprises until further notice, and this effectively prevents these companies from participating in any federal procurement with security requirements. More broadly, PSPC has taken concrete actions over the past year to strengthen the oversight of all professional service contracts falling under PSPC authority.
The department is actively engaging with client departments and agencies to ensure that these new measures are implemented quickly and efficiently, and our government is extremely troubled by allegations of fraudulent activity at a time when Canada's people and resources were in a tremendously vulnerable state.
We know that ArriveCAN was a useful tool to help keep Canadians safe in a time of crisis, but even in exceptional circumstances, it is absolutely necessary that public money be spent with due diligence and that all activities be properly documented. The early development of the application has been an object lesson. The government shares the member's concerns with this member and his desire to hold those responsible to account. This is why, as we continue to support the various investigations and inquiries in this matter, we appreciate all parties' support.