Debates of June 12th, 2025

Opposition Motion—GC Strategies Inc.

[Abdelhaq Sari, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to explain that our government implemented border measures in early 2020 in response to widespread and growing concern in the international community about reports of a new virus identified in China. This was followed by an unprecedented international response to the pandemic.

Throughout the COVID‑19 pandemic, we took a comprehensive and layered approach to border management in a rapidly evolving and highly dynamic environment. This included frequently adapting measures based on available data, operational considerations and scientific evidence, while monitoring the epidemiological situation and the capacity to respond to the pandemic, both in Canada and abroad.

The ArriveCAN solution was launched in April 2020 to facilitate the digital submission of the mandatory public health information that was required of travellers entering Canada. ArriveCAN evolved in step with public health measures at the border to protect Canadians and to limit the importation of the virus and the spread of COVID‑19. Most of all, it was an effort to limit pressure on Canada's health care system. Lastly, it was also an effort to support the resumption of travel. ArriveCAN is a tool that helped facilitate the reopening of our borders, which was essential for Canadian businesses and the national economy.

Let us now talk about how this solution contributed to public health. The introduction of this mandatory system, known as ArriveCAN, was cited by the Auditor General in her December 2021 report as an important factor in improving data quality and, consequently, the Public Health Agency of Canada's ability to promote, review and enforce COVID‑19 border measures.

It is important to note that the data was very important in guiding the government in the direction it should take and in the decisions that should be made by public health officials. More specifically, ArriveCAN enabled the Government of Canada to implement, add, adjust and remove important public health measures, especially at the border. As the pandemic evolved, the situation was, of course, taken into account. As I said, the data from ArriveCAN guided those decisions.

When the app was launched, Canada was recording more than 1,200 COVID-19-related deaths per week. Public health measures at the border helped protect Canadians and limit the importation and spread of COVID-19. These measures also helped ease significant pressure on the Canadian health care system. Data collected through ArriveCAN played a critical role in developing public health advice. It enabled the federal government to monitor, assess and respond to COVID-19 as it evolved.

More specifically, ArriveCAN was an important tool in implementing the border testing program, which was essential in identifying and monitoring the importation of variants of concern from high-risk countries. For example, when the omicron variant was identified in late 2021, data from ArriveCAN was used to identify recent arrivals from countries where omicron was widespread, to facilitate compliance verification and enforcement activities related to border measures and to protect travellers and border control officers by reducing points of contact.

The solution gave all travellers, regardless of their mode of transportation, a digital means of providing the required information in accordance with emergency orders made under the Quarantine Act. This digital solution also made it possible to collect, collate and analyze the information more quickly and efficiently than the initial paper-based process so that traveller health information could be shared with the provinces and territories in a timely manner or in real-time for contact tracing purposes.

As I explained earlier, the app had value for public health, but also for the resumption of international travel and for our economy. It played a vital role in protecting Canadians from the spread of the virus in our country and allowed the economy to reopen within our economic system. In March 2020, all international commercial passenger flights were funnelled to four major airports: Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. The availability and use of ArriveCAN were essential to enable the government to resume international commercial passenger flights at other airports starting in August 2021, with full resumption across Canada by the end of February 2022.

As a result of this solution, the number of travellers entering Canada by air increased regularly, going from roughly 1,000 travellers a day in May 2020, to between 30,000 and 50,000 travellers a day in January 2023, and roughly 1.5 million travellers a month thereafter. ArriveCan really helped to reduce the processing time required by border services officers to support the resumption of international travel.

In conclusion, all the COVID-19-related border measures were lifted on October 1, 2022, including the requirement for travellers entering Canada to submit their public health information using the ArriveCAN app or web site. The COVID-19 pandemic created a unique set of challenges and a need for government intervention and support that had not been seen in more than a generation. In an increasingly interconnected world, many lessons have been learned from this experience and are being integrated into pandemic preparation and response plans, which will help the government adjust its operations, if necessary, and remain well positioned and prepared to respond to future global health events.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, at the public accounts committee, we heard the assistant deputy minister testify that the government was actually not going after cases of fraud to recover money, only asking for the money back, saying it was open to negotiations with companies that were defrauding taxpayers through procurement policy.

I wonder if the colleague across the way could explain why the government is so lenient with companies that are stealing taxpayers' money.

[Abdelhaq Sari, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I really want to put on the record that the government has not turned a blind eye and has acted very responsibly. The government has already taken concrete action to address the concerns raised. An investigation has been launched by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, and we are co-operating fully with the authorities to get to the bottom of this matter. The government has also launched a review of our contract management practices to strengthen oversight mechanisms and ensure that every public dollar is spent wisely.

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to share a story with my colleague. It is the story of Jean‑Claude Martin and Gaétane Cyr, both residents of Baie‑des‑Chaleurs. I represented them as their legal aid lawyer. When they started living together, they filed a tax return as a couple. To get their guaranteed income supplement, they simply called and explained their situation to a public servant, without filling in any forms, since none had been sent to them.

A few years later, the federal government suddenly woke up and decided to send my two low-income clients a letter demanding $38,000. It is not hard to imagine the stress they were under. We disputed this demand and asked the government to forgive the debt since it had been notified of the situation previously. We took the matter all the way to Federal Court and lost. At the time, I asked Minister Duclos to step in and cancel the debt. That never happened.

How can we be sure that no double standard will creep in and that the people who cheated the government, or at best behaved badly, will also have to face legal proceedings in this case?

[Abdelhaq Sari, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely true, whether in this case or any other case where people find that administrative processes take a really long time or genuinely harm their financial situation.

I would just like to come back to the subject to say one thing. What matters to this government in terms of administrative processes is integrating AI and making Canadians our primary concern.

I would also like to remind everyone here that, rather than turning this into a partisan wedge issue, our responsibility as members of Parliament is to strengthen public confidence and put our trust in our public servants and in our system. This is the message we need to send to Canadians.

[Bruce Fanjoy, Liberal, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we agree fully and wholeheartedly with the Auditor General, who states that we do not need more rules; we need to ensure the rules and frameworks are in place and followed by public servants.

I would like to hear your thoughts on how we do that, given that the processes are in place and we just need to follow them.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, John Nater]

I would remind members to direct their questions through the Chair.

The hon. member for Bourassa has the floor.

[Abdelhaq Sari, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is very important that our government remain committed to strengthening the mechanism of integrity in public administration. We need to work together across party lines, in a non-partisan way, to make sure that something like this never happens again. It is very important that this issue be addressed in a non-partisan way and that it not be politicized.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Windsor West.

One of our primary duties as members of His Majesty's loyal opposition is to hold the federal government to account. Although the new Prime Minister wishes to reset the clock as if this were a new Liberal government, the reality is the team around him is made up of the same old scandal-plagued, tired Liberals, who are carry-overs from the previous era of Liberal incompetence.

Canada continues to face several challenges. There is a housing crisis, there is a crime crisis, there is a fentanyl crisis, there is a federal spending and debt crisis, and there are many more. Today Conservatives are here to speak about how the government wastefully spent taxpayer money on a project for which it did not even confirm if the work was completed. Those are not our words. That is the recent finding of the Auditor General when it came to the federal contracting of ArriveCAN, which inspired this headline in The Globe and Mail on June 10: “ArriveCan's main contractor GCStrategies paid without ensuring work was done”.

Although ArriveCAN was a Trudeau-era creation, its fallout is now the current Liberal government's problem. That is why I am here this afternoon. It is to take part in speaking to our common-sense Conservative motion, which states:

That, given that the Auditor General found that ArriveCAN contractor, GCStrategies Inc., was paid $64 million from the Liberal government, and in many cases, there was no proof that any work was completed, the House call on the government to:

(a) get taxpayers their money back, within 100 days of the adoption of this motion; and

(b) impose a lifetime contracting ban on GCStrategies Inc., any of its subsidiaries, its founders Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony, and any other entities with which those individuals are affiliated.

Truly, it is the least the Liberal government can do. Let me explain.

The impacts of the disastrous ArriveCAN app are still fresh in the minds of my constituents. The city of Niagara Falls and the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake are tourism communities located along the Canada-U.S. border. We are home to three international bridge crossings that span the Niagara River and connect Canada to the U.S. All three are part of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission. There is the Queenston Lewiston Bridge in Niagara-on-the-Lake and both the Whirlpool Bridge and the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. Together, these bridges facilitate trade, travel and tourism. They were also on the front lines of the two-year-long ArriveCAN app disaster, from 2020 to 2022.

When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake were among the first and hardest hit by the consequences of restrictive government policies intending to preserve public health by slowing the virus's spread. The ArriveCAN app first launched on April 30, 2020, as a digital tool that was developed in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency.

Between November 21, 2020, and September 30, 2022, the mandatory use of ArriveCAN was aimed at ensuring that all travellers to Canada complied with federal travel and border measures relating to COVID-19. In theory, this app was supposed to help limit the spread of the coronavirus, but, in practice, it instantly turned into a disaster. My constituency office was inundated with phone calls and correspondence from constituents and travellers who were experiencing a wide range of issues with the app. Many travellers could not access or use ArriveCAN if they did not have a computer, a cellphone or a data plan. At times, data coverage on the border can be sketchy; travellers can also accidentally incur expensive roaming fees.

Language barriers were also a challenge, and seniors felt disproportionately targeted and discriminated against. The app failed on many occasions, when it glitched or faced other software issues. In fact, this is exactly what happened to Bernadette from my riding, a 75-year-old constituent at the time. Upon arriving in Canada from her trip to the U.S., Bernadette was told she would have to be quarantined for 14 days, despite being double-vaccinated and having a booster. Shortly after returning home, she began receiving threatening phone calls from the Government of Canada, harassing her to complete her testing requirements or face jail time and/or a $650,000 fine. Bernadette's case was not the only one. In fact, over 10,000 Canadians were wrongly ordered to quarantine as a result of a glitch in the ArriveCAN app.

This glitch created undue and significant emotional stress and impacted people's lives in different ways, whether it was having to give up work shifts, cancel appointments or miss important family events. In addition to the personal impacts that the dysfunctional ArriveCAN app caused people, there is also the economic cost. In March 2023, the international trade committee, which I sat on as a member, published a report on the economic impacts of ArriveCAN. It reads, “The Tourism Industry Association of Canada stated that the mandatory use of ArriveCAN and its requirements had a ‘massive effect’ on Canada’s tourism sector, resulting in ‘a drop of 50% or more in the number of Americans coming into the country.’”

Further, the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority characterized the mandatory use of ArriveCAN as a “disincentive” and an “inconvenience” to discretionary travel. We felt these economic impacts in my region of Niagara. As a result of fewer American tourists arriving by auto, the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission experienced a 53% drop in auto crossings in June of 2022, compared to the same month in 2019.

In addition to lower volume, travel essentially came to a halt. The report says, “The Customs and Immigration Union compared the country’s land borders to ‘parking lots’”, as the mandatory use of the app at the borders caused processing times for all travellers arriving in Canada to skyrocket. As of June 15, 2022, the Customs and Immigration Union observed that CBSA officers were processing 30 cars per hour at the Canadian port of entry, compared to 60 cars per hour in the years preceding the pandemic.

Further, the wait times at the Rainbow Bridge rose from about one half hour during the 2019 Victoria Day weekend to just over two hours during the same weekend in 2022. These delays were felt not only at land borders; airports also experienced the pains and significant bottlenecks. In fact, the National Airlines Council of Canada stated that “following the requirement to use ArriveCAN, processing times for travellers at Canadian ports of entry were ‘about five times as long as they were before ArriveCAN’”.

In addition to the direct impacts of the app, there were also concerns being raised about why the federal government mandated the use of ArriveCAN for as long as it did. In the report, testimony provided by McMaster University's Dr. Zain Chagla shows he openly “questioned the continued mandatory use of [ArriveCAN] in spring 2022,” when some public health measures were being lifted in time to welcome the 2022 summer tourism season, which in Niagara is our peak tourism season.

Despite the measures' having been lifted, the Liberal government kept the mandatory use of ArriveCAN in place until the fall, when it finally made the app optional in October, 2022. This delayed action was a self-inflicted attack, there can be no other word for it, by the federal Liberals against the Canadian tourism industry, and it delayed any hope for a tourism recovery that year.

Although the costs we are discussing today in the motion focus on the GC Strategies contract, the personal and economic costs incurred by Canadians as a result of the broken and dysfunctional ArriveCAN app that was implemented by the reckless and careless Liberals are enormous, perhaps immeasurable, and they are not recoverable.

This is why our Conservative motion makes so much common sense. Getting Canadian taxpayers their money back and protecting Canadians from another arrive scam ever happening again by the same company or its founders is the least the Liberal government can do, and that is why I call on all my colleagues in the House to stand in support of the motion.

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Mr. Speaker, sometimes we seem to have convenient amnesia about the level of emergency the COVID-19 pandemic caused, when governments of all levels were putting in emergency measures to protect Canadians.

My question to the hon. member is this: Does he agree that the COVID-19 pandemic was the most severe public health emergency of the past century?

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the hon. member to this place.

The Auditor General indicated that emergency measures' being put in place does not mean that the government cannot still follow the rules, and it should ensure that it does follow the procurement rules. In this case, it failed to do so, and that was to the detriment of Canadians, not only taxpayers but also the tourism sector in particular, which suffered because of the inept Liberal government.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to reiterate that the Bloc Québécois supports both main points of the motion. I commend my Conservative colleague for clearly re-explaining why this is important.

Taxpayers should get their money back if no work was done. However, the Auditor General is not necessarily saying that the work was not done, just that at this point, there is no documentation to show that the work was done and delivered. It is clear that some of the work was not done. It remains to be seen what work actually was done.

My question concerns the reference to “within 100 days” in the motion. I would ask my hon. colleague if he does not think it is a little unrealistic to talk about 100 days. Looking at the Liberals' track record, there are some sad examples where they have not been able to recover the money, unfortunately. The sponsorship scandal is a good example.

Is a 100-day deadline really realistic, given the Liberals' track record?

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Bloc for its support for the motion and the upcoming vote on the motion.

What is important is that we have put a timeline on it. What we are asking is for the government to act and to act with a sense of urgency. What I mentioned in my remarks is that this is $64 million we could actually recover. With respect to the damage the government did through its ArriveCAN app to the tourism economy, those monies are not recoverable. We owe it to the hard-working taxpayers and hard-working individuals in the tourism sector to get that money back for the impacts the arrive scam app had on my community.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague what he hears from the people he represents about how they perceive a government that has for a decade imposed inflationary tax and spending policies and that has hiked the costs of all essentials and made life more expensive for all Canadians, while TD also predicts Canada's heading into a recession and 100,000 job losses to come.

What do the member's constituents say about a government that does that to Canadians and then spends and loses $64 million and hundreds of millions of dollars on insider backroom deal contracts but will not actually move to get the money back to repay taxpayers?

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's comments are absolutely correct. The hard-working people of Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake sit around their kitchen table and plan a budget. They plan for the hardships they have been undertaking because of the government. We are in an affordability crisis. People are pinching their pennies, and yet they see a government that wastefully spent $64 billion.

On top of that, the government cannot even share with the House a plan, a budget for the future. What it has dropped before us is estimates showing half a trillion dollars in spending, which is 8% up, and yet there is no plan or detail on where those monies, the revenue, is going to come from.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge that I stood with my colleague this week as we urged the government to provide honorary citizenship for Jimmy Lai. I appreciate his work on that. It is unfortunate that has not happened yet.

The government has announced huge expenditures in defence spending. One of the things I worry about is that this is ultimately a procurement issue, and I am concerned about whether he trusts the government—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, John Nater]

The member for Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake has the floor.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in a simple word, I do not trust the government. Where is the budget? Again, we get back to the issue of $9 billion. Where is that money, where is the revenue and how is it to be spent?

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, before I start with the matter at hand, I would like to take a moment to wish one of my constituents a belated happy birthday. Mrs. Winnie Lynn celebrated her 100th birthday on June 10. She is an inspiration to me and to all who know her, including her four sons and many grandchildren, nieces and nephews. As the daughter of an itinerant minister, she travelled across the globe with her family, her father, before she set roots in Windsor in 1947.

Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Lynn married a naval officer of the Royal Canadian Navy. Besides raising her sons and being there for her family, friends and neighbours, she volunteered with the Canadian Cancer Society for over 50 years and has consistently worked on improving and helping our community. It is citizens like Mrs. Lynn who are the glue that binds our families and communities together.

Once again, I wish a happy birthday to Mrs. Lynn.

On a sadder note, we all heard the tragic news of the crash of the Air India flight originating from Ahmedabad, India, a city where many of my friends live and where I have flown from before. My heart aches for the families who have lost loved ones. We as Canadians share their grief, as we too lost a citizen in the tragic crash. We will pray for those who are no longer with us and will stand with the families in this painful hour. May the Almighty grant everyone strength and peace.

With respect to the matter at hand, today Canadians are watching to see whether their Parliament can still do the basics—

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, point of order. The interpretation is not working.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, John Nater]

I am being told that it is working now.

The hon. member for Windsor West.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the matter at hand, today Canadians are watching to see whether their Parliament can still do the basics: recover their money when it is wasted and protect them from being defrauded by their own government.

I rise today to speak in support of the motion, not just as the member for Windsor West but also as someone who has seen first-hand how Liberal mismanagement harmed our economy, damaged trust at the border and wasted millions of our hard-earned dollars.

The motion calls on the government to do two simple things: one, to get taxpayers their money back within 100 days, and two, impose a lifetime contracting ban on GC Strategies Inc., its subsidiaries and its founders, who are now under criminal investigation by the RCMP.

Let me repeat the headline, because it cannot be said enough: The Liberals need to get the taxpayers their money back.

The Auditor General released one of the most scathing reports in recent memory, a deep dive into how GC Strategies, a so-called IT firm with just two employees and no developers, received over $64 million in contracts from the Liberal government. GC Strategies did not build software. It did not write code. It subcontracted the work while skimming millions in fees. It was a middleman billing the government while doing virtually nothing itself, and for this, it was rewarded not once, not twice but 106 times across 31 government departments, including Global Affairs, National Defence and even the Department of Justice.

This is not just waste; it is systemic rot. There was no proof of work, no accountability and no consequences. The Auditor General found that in 46% of the contracts, the government had no proof of deliverables' being received, yet officials still signed off on the payments. In 33% of the cases, they could not even confirm whether the contractors had the experience to do the job. In over 50% of the cases, contract staff had no security clearance when they began work, even on sensitive projects. The government paid out $64 million with almost no documentation, no oversight and no explanation.

Let us be clear: GC Strategies was cleared to receive over $100 million in total. We may have only scratched the surface, so let us see what the RCMP finds out.

What happened when all this came to light? The RCMP raided the home of one of the company's founders, Parliament was misled, border communities like mine were ignored, and yet no one has been held accountable.

We did get excuses. We got many deflections, and, of course, we got more spending. Windsor West was hit especially hard by the ArriveCAN disaster. We are Canada's busiest border region. We rely on cross-border travel, not just for tourism but also for trade, family, health care and work. ArriveCAN was not just a glitchy app; it was a gatekeeper, and it failed. Seniors and truckers were detained and fined because the app crashed. Seniors who did not have a smart phone were punished with fines or unbelievable delays while crossing. Nurses and doctors were delayed at crossings. American visitors disappeared overnight from our small businesses, and all the while, the Liberals handed out contracts like candy on Canada Day, while telling Canadians it was just a tech issue.

The scandal is about judgment, values and governance, or rather the lack thereof. Canadians, especially in my community, were the ones left holding the bag. We now know, thanks to the Auditor General, that the government had the power to fix this. Public Service and Procurement Canada testified before a committee that, had a fraud occurred, “we have the ability to recover the funds from the suppliers, and it's in our regular practice to do so”, so let us do it.

What are we waiting for, a red carpet? Let us recover the money, let us end the excuses, and let us pass the motion, because inaction or delay sends a message that this kind of behaviour is acceptable. Clearly, it is not. I am sure that both sides of the House would agree on that.

Let us also talk about the government's first major spending bill. The Liberals have said that they would spend less. Instead, they brought forward a spending bill that increases total expenditures by 8%, nearly three times the combined rate of inflation and population growth.

Where is the money going? There is $26.1 billion for consultants. That is $1,400 per household in Canada handed to insiders and lobbyists, even after the arrive scam mess. That is not about innovation. It is not about investment. It is about a government addicted to outsourcing, with no accountability and no shame.

Let us turn to the core of this motion. This is not radical. It is not partisan. It is about restoring faith in how our money is spent. The Liberals gave $64 million to a two-person firm that never delivered and is now being investigated by the RCMP. The Liberals ignored procurement rules, they ignored security rules and they ignored the taxpayer. Now the Liberals want to move on like there is nothing to see here; let us go on. Well, we say not this time. The motion would give them 100 days to act: 100 days to return the money using the very tools that their own departments say already exist and 100 days to ban GC Strategies, its subsidiaries, its founders and any shell company they try to hide behind from ever touching federal dollars again.

Public service is a privilege, as we all know, not a business model. To my colleagues, especially those on the government benches, this is their moment to shine. Are they willing to stand up for their constituents or are they going to protect a pair of contractors who cashed $64 million in exchange for smoke and mirrors?

To the people of Windsor and the rest of Canada, I say this. We are fighting to get their money back. We are fighting to end the gravy train and demand accountability and responsibility. We are demanding on their behalf that this Parliament finally delivers results, not just reviews.

The Liberals need to get the taxpayers their money back. This House needs to send a clear message that this needs to happen at the end of the motion.

[Natilien Joseph, Liberal, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for my colleague across the floor, whom I respect deeply. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his speech challenging the government. These things happen when people spend their time criticizing.

After criticizing the ArriveCAN app in a series of flashy media statements, can he now tell us specifically what credible solutions his party would have put in place to protect Canadians at the border?

Are we talking about opposition again—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, John Nater]

Order. I must give the hon. member time to respond to the question.

The hon. member for Windsor West.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. No one is denying the need for swift action during a pandemic, but swift does not mean sloppy. An emergency does not mean being unaccountable. Canadians expect their government to protect public health and use taxpayer money responsibly.

We have now learned that $64 million went out the door with almost no oversight, and only $8 million can be properly accounted for. My community was not asking for perfection. We were asking not to be punished for living at the border. What we needed was a functional, transparent system. What we got was a $60-million glitch.