The unfortunate reality is that the ArriveCan scandal will result in more studies and more recommendations that are unlikely to result in any meaningful change to prevent future instances of abuse of taxpayer dollars. Pictured: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Treasury Board President Anita Anand. Photo Credit: Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld.
It’s been said that democracy will bend but never break. And yet, a house of cards feels more apt as a metaphor to describe the current state of affairs in Canada.
For people to continue to put their faith in the idea that the law is the supreme authority, they must trust that Canadian institutions and the politicians that oversee them are being held accountable.
In the case of the ArriveCan scandal, the system of checks and balances that should, in theory, prevent the misuse of public funds failed spectacularly. While a parliamentary committee is attempting to get to the bottom of the he-said, she-said mess of testimony, the bottom line is that nearly $60 million in taxpayer dollars was handed out to several consulting firms without any basic due diligence.
That money can’t be recouped. It is a line item added to the black (or red) hole that is the federal deficit.
The details of who, what, when and why make this story that much more difficult to digest. A competition to award the contract wasn’t run, and it’s clear from a recent report from the Auditor General’s investigation into ArriveCan that the general chaos created by the COVID-19 pandemic is not a valid excuse for lack of oversight on the tendering of the contract.
Notably, two of the IT firms that worked on the ArriveCan app were contracted for other government work. According to a Globe and Mail investigation last December, they “received more than $400 million in federal contract work over the past decade, including frequent use of a set-aside program for Indigenous business, have never been audited to determine whether they delivered on the program’s requirements to support Indigenous entrepreneurs.”
Layer in the fact that media reports confirmed this week that the CEO of one of those firms is a federal government employee at the Department of National Defence and the question of malfeasance becomes that much bigger.
Why, at no stage during the contracting process were any red flags not raised? How did this get past the many supervisors that would have signed off on this type of contract? Where was the ministerial oversight, and the due diligence of political staff whose job it is to ask questions about why and how taxpayer dollars are being spent?
Then there is the loaded question of accountability. Credit is due to Conservative Ethics Critic Michael Barrett, who has doggedly dragged this story out of the shadows over the course of the last several months.
While the committee process has driven media attention to this scandal and has helped get some answers on the systemic failings that occurred, the study – like the Auditor General’s report – is ultimately toothless. The unfortunate reality is that the ArriveCan scandal will result in more studies and more recommendations that are unlikely to result in any meaningful change to prevent future instances of abuse of taxpayer dollars.
Like scandals past, there won’t be any resignations. Short of criminal charges being laid, there will be no reforms. There is only blind faith that the house of cards doesn’t tip over and that the status quo will remain.
Josie Sabatino is a Senior Consultant at Summa Strategies, focused on providing strategic insight and helping clients meet their objectives in an ever changing and complex political and regulatory environment. Prior to joining Summa, Josie spent nearly a decade in political communications and most recently served as the Director of Communications to the Hon. Erin O’Toole, former Leader of the Official Opposition.
