Government Operations committee  I know you have a lot of work to do, but this is the kind of information that will enable us to improve our work and have better public policies for Inuit and first nations. I'm going to take you somewhere else now, Mr. Giroux. The scandal surrounding ArriveCAN, the infamous app launched during the COVID‑19 pandemic, has opened our eyes to the high costs of subcontracting, which are sometimes exorbitant, even scandalous. The Auditor General even told us that subcontracting rather than using the services of the public service could double the price.

Government Operations committee  Are Quebeckers and Canadians getting their money's worth? Is there a growing number of examples like ArriveCAN that don't always make the headlines?

Government Operations committee  Then that was how GC Strategies became involved in the ArriveCAN file.

Government Operations committee  Also, it was a reference to a company which was doing commercial goods rather than doing traveller goods with ArriveCAN—

Government Operations committee  Privately awarded contracts were issued in the ArriveCAN case following that exemption letter.

Government Operations committee  But this committee's investigation didn't start until after that, so the CBSA had received the concerns from Botler prior to this committee's beginning its work on ArriveCAN. Is that correct?

Government Operations committee  Moor, I want to go back to the letter, because I think it's an important part of the whole issue surrounding the ArriveCAN app. Your letter to Ms. Arianne Reza about the national security exception wasn't dated. Can you tell us the date when that letter was written?

Government Operations committee  Leahy, earlier on, we talked a little about the CARM application. I'm raising the matter again because I see a number of things that remind me of the ArriveCAN case. There's a lot of goodwill and people want to speed up the process, but we can't disregard the fact that borders are key trade locations. How many pages were in the technical specifications submitted by Deloitte for the CARM application, and how many comments were made about those specifications?

Government Operations committee  Would you agree with me, sir, that deleting four years' worth of relevant emails—not because they were corrupted, but deliberately deleting them—during the ArriveCAN development and outlay would potentially constitute not only a highly suspicious action on the part of Minh Doan but also potentially an illegal one under the Criminal Code? Obstruction of justice comes to mind.

Government Operations committee  The CBSA indicated that it had discussions at the time with three potential contractors about submitting a proposal to develop the ArriveCAN app, yet through investigation, the Auditor General found that only one proposal was received by the CBSA, but not for GC Strategies. Why would the agency deliberately mislead the Auditor General?

Government Operations committee  My understanding is that at the start of the pandemic—and again, I was not directly involved in these discussions—they mocked up what the first version of ArriveCAN would look like and asked three organizations—Deloitte, Apple and GC Strategies—

Government Operations committee  I read this is in your introductory notes: “PHAC asked the CBSA to assist them by developing a digital form, and the first version of ArriveCAN was released six weeks later.” Can you walk us through what those first six weeks looked like?

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Are you aware of any traveller information and customs applications like ArriveCAN that were developed or procured by other governments?

Government Operations committee  They were trying to record information on people travelling into the country so that they could trace those contacts—that was particularly important when you were seeing new variants coming in—and allow the public health agencies around the world to be able to track where those individuals had been and how the spread of the new variants was operating. As well, as the ArriveCAN app progressed, we had the proof of vaccine credential. That was also a very complicated, difficult system, and it was complicated and difficult for us to be able to identify the vaccines and go right back into the provincial health data systems to check that they were valid.

Government Operations committee  Since the report was tabled, have you provided any further clarification on her report about the exact cost of ArriveCAN?