Public Accounts committee  They're all staff augmentation contracts. There potentially could be direct contracts for ArriveCAN only, so they have a challenge against them in trying to decipher all of this data. Even though we sent an email back to the Auditor General on January 30 indicating that the $4.9 million versus $7.9 million attributed to ArriveCAN....

Public Accounts committee  We were not contacted as part of the Auditor General's work on ArriveCAN. I've certainly read the reports. I did speak to the Auditor General when I became aware of Mr. Yeo's activities, just to make sure that she was aware of what we had stumbled upon, so I've had that conversation, but we were not part of the audit work itself.

Public Accounts committee  Has the RCMP contacted your office regarding ArriveCAN or Dalian or any of the contractors that are involved?

Public Accounts committee  In this report and this example of one of the ministries, it suggests that, “The Canada Border Services Agency relied heavily on external resources, which increased ArriveCAN’s costs”. You just mentioned that there was an issue related to the markups of subcontractors. That's certainly one of the issues that the Auditor General made clear, in addition to some security challenges.

Public Accounts committee  You stated that, since 2012, you granted 86 contracts to businesses studied as part of the ArriveCAN case. These contracts were awarded to businesses that provided no services, because they are only contracting officers. Two people who deliver no services received $88 million worth of taxpayer money.

International Trade committee  We have seen a similar pattern of behaviour as was recently reported by the Auditor General on ArriveCAN and believe that we need to have this project also reviewed. We ask for your support in recommending that the Government of Canada and the CBSA implement CARM responsibly by providing a parallel system allowing importers and service providers that are ready to proceed on May 13.

Public Accounts committee  Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(g), the committee is resuming consideration of report 1 of the 2024 reports of the Auditor General of Canada, entitled “Report 1: ArriveCAN”, referred to the committee on Monday, February 12, 2024. I'd like to welcome our witnesses. From the Department of National Defence, we have Bill Matthews, deputy minister; Troy Crosby, assistant deputy minister, materiel group; and Isabelle Desmartis, assistant deputy minister, human resources—civilian.

Public Accounts committee  Good afternoon, committee members, and thank you for the opportunity to testify today as part of your study on ArriveCAN and to assist you in getting more clarity on the actions of Mr. David Yeo, now a former employee of the Department of National Defence. In advance of today's session, the committee was provided with several documents that outline details and background on Mr.

Public Services and Procurement  Speaker, after eight years, scandal runs rampant in the Liberal-NDP government. We all know about ArriveCAN and now we know about another $5 million in fraudulent billing. To make matters worse, the billing is across 36 departments and dates back to 2018, pre-pandemic. This is only the first wave of even more fraudulent billing cases.

Public Accounts committee  There has not been a single review, investigation, audit, report or study that has indicated Dalian or Coradix did anything wrong or illegal during ArriveCAN or the ArriveCAN project, or any other government project that we've been involved with. Despite this and as a result of these unfounded terminations and suspensions, hundreds of employees and consultants are already out of work, or soon will be, from both companies.

Information & Ethics committee  I will say, referring back to my colleague's question, that if he had analyzed my role, he would see that I signed no contract relating to ArriveCAN and he would also see, in the Auditor General's report, that the Auditor General highlighted CBSA, which is an organization within the Department of Public Safety, of which I was not the minister.

Information & Ethics committee  I want to specify that the Treasury Board did not have any involvement with the development of the ArriveCAN app—

Information & Ethics committee  However, the Liberal government has failed to take any action until they've been dragged, kicking and screaming, by Conservatives to take action, as has been evident in the ArriveCAN scandal. Why would you—?

Information & Ethics committee  Again, as I said, it is only when you're dragged kicking and screaming that you take action. Was there a privacy impact assessment done on the $60-million ArriveCAN app?

Information & Ethics committee  There was a PIA done on the application called ArriveCAN.