Public Safety committee  It cannot be a comprehensive process. Telephone and paper must be an option. COVID taught us that elders do not have ArriveCAN apps, elders do not have smart phones and elders are large users in Akwesasne and in other places across Canada, especially where entertainment facilities exist across the border.

The Economy  Speaker, I have been very clear that I would get rid of the $35-billion incompetent infrastructure bank. I would get rid of the $54-million ArriveCAN app, which did not work and was not necessary. I would not blow billions of dollars buying back hunting rifles from lawful and licensed Canadians instead of going after serious criminals.

Finance committee  It's been three years that we've essentially lost our tourism years. It was two years, because of COVID-19. I put the entire blame last year on a useless ArriveCAN app that did nothing but keep people away from this destination. Let's talk about the labour situation, because that is something that is impacting my community primarily. We have huge backlogs on the full-time stream, as well as issues with regard to temporary foreign workers.

Public Accounts committee  That being said, we recognize that Parliament is our principal stakeholder, and we take seriously the requests we receive from Parliament. On the ones that you're talking about, when it comes to ArriveCAN, to give you an update, we don't talk about audits while they're under way. We believe it's important to share that information with Parliament all at once. What I can tell you is that our intention is to release the ArriveCAN audit in the fall of this year, and the audit for professional services contracts in the spring of the following year.

Public Accounts committee  I know this is more political, but from our perspective, if you have a report coming on the ArriveCAN app or on contracts with McKinsey and we see a premature prorogation or see the government engineering a dissolution, I think it will be interesting for Canadians to note that it is taking place.

Public Accounts committee  You've told us in the past that you set priorities, and then when Parliament asks for those audits, they can be in addition to them. We had the request from Parliament for the audit into ArriveCAN and the fact that tens of millions of dollars were spent developing an app that didn't work. We had a request to look into the McKinsey scandal as well. I wonder if you could update us on the status of those two investigations, and what impact it has on your resources when Parliament requests these additional audits.

Public Accounts committee  Just for everyone's peace of mind here, we're in a minority Parliament, and in the event that there's an early election, what would the impact be on the possible release of the ArriveCAN app audit or the McKinsey audit? Could the government call an early election and thus force a delay in the release of one of these reports, or would they be released as scheduled, regardless?

Public Accounts committee  During this period, we plan to issue 89 financial audits, six special examinations and 25 performance audits. This includes the audits that Parliament has requested on the government's ArriveCAN application and on the use of contracts for professional services. We will also deliver all other reports that are required annually in the environment and sustainable development portfolio.

Government Operations committee  I also want to quote something from your article, where you state, “Nor is it true that private firms always do good work—as we saw with the Phoenix pay system and with some apps, such as ArriveCAN”. I think one of the concerns that has been raised during this study is the lack of transparency and accountability that can arise when you are procuring the services of external consultants and those external consultants then subcontract.

Government Operations committee  I see everyone's perfectly fine with that. Thank you very much. Another issue, just going back to ArriveCan, is that the Auditor General is studying ArriveCan as well. I would like committee's approval that we make all of the ArriveCan documents, the unredacted ones, available to her office so she does not have to go through the whole process and the cost of getting the documents as well.

Government Operations committee  I suspect, when the time comes, we'll ask the same for the McKinsey ones, but that she's doing ArriveCan first is my understanding. We have a couple of budget items to go over. The budgets have been distributed by the clerk. The first one is Bill C-290, an act to amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act.

Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022  It is important that the government answer these questions and sets standards because it is falling short of its own requirements. Canadians have not forgotten even the ArriveCAN debacle, the privacy questions around its mandatory use, and the terms and conditions associated with it. In other words, exactly what personal data and identifying information has been shared outside the app?

Committees of the House  The member spoke about the CBSA urgently needing to update not only its collective agreement but also the number of employees who are working at border facilities. In Niagara, for example, when we did the ArriveCAN study, Mark Weber, the president of the union, mentioned our Rainbow Bridge. He said that instead of having 100 officers, it is staffed with only 48. I think this is an important area where things that can be done should be done quickly.

Committees of the House  On top of that, it is even trying to move toward more automation as opposed to having men and women at our border as a policy. That is really what the ArriveCAN situation was. We know there was lots of discussion in the House about its mismanagement as an application on someone's phone. However, at the end of the day, this was really about the Liberals trying to defund men and women at the border.

Government Operations committee  We've seen it here—the subbing out of contracts. As one example, we looked to GC Strategies during the ArriveCAN app study, which was charging between 15% and 30%, which I guess is the industry standard. They don't know anything about tech. They just know whom to contract to. You have these big, highly paid consultant companies, six of which are over $100 million, that are doing business with Canada—the big six.