Public Accounts committee  As the deputy head of the organization, I am responsible.

Public Accounts committee  The deputy head reports to the Clerk of the Privy Council and to the minister, depending on the subject and the authority that's being delegated.

Public Accounts committee  The specific contracts that were put in place were from the Canada Border Services Agency. A number of resources needed to be replaced, given the length of the pandemic. The security and privacy considerations related to the data that was collected were reviewed through numerous assessments, including from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Public Accounts committee  The process of digitizing the information being collected was necessary to have a functional border and to facilitate the transit of critical services, people and goods. For example, in the initial days with paper processing, it could take up to 14 days for data to be transferred and processed.

Public Accounts committee  When we look at the situation in Canada in March 2020, we see that it was a novel pandemic, and the timelines and the nature of the response that would be required were not known. This was an evolving situation. I recall when we looked at—

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  There was governance established around ArriveCAN, but it focused on the public health deliverables and the nature of the border measures that needed to be put in place and operationalized through the app. There was no overall project established as should have been the case in IT projects.

Public Accounts committee  There were initial contracts put in place, but incrementally, as you are aware, those contracts were added to and were administered in sequence. There was no overarching budget that covered those costs.

Public Accounts committee  The operations of the app were evaluated through our governance structure, which included the director general, ADM and deputy management committees on border services. We assessed the operational results of the app as we went.

Public Accounts committee  The documentation of the cumulative cost was not part of the documentation of that governance. That's correct.

Public Accounts committee  The Public Health Agency of Canada is part of the health portfolio and reports to the Minister of Health, but the contracts that were put in place were put in place—

Public Accounts committee  The ArriveCAN app was jointly developed between the Public Health Agency and the Canada Border Services Agency.

Public Accounts committee  At the outset of the pandemic, the Minister of Health was Minister Hajdu.

Public Accounts committee  We certainly recognize that the failure to put in place formal project governance at the outset of this project led to inadequate oversight of the project and meant that the costs were not appropriately tracked as they were developed. We have put in place numerous measures to ensure that this does not happen again.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee today to discuss the report of the Auditor General on the development of the ArriveCAN application. I'm pleased to join you from the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.