Ottawa Spent Nearly $20 Million on COVID 19 Tracking App — with Inconclusive Results

Podium placards promoting the COVID Alert app are seen on a table on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on July 31, 2020. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

MONTREAL—The federal government spent $20 million on a smartphone application designed to alert users to possible COVID-19 exposures, and new data obtained by The Canadian Press shows the results didn’t live up to expectations.

Ottawa’s COVID Alert app, introduced late last year in several provinces, uses Bluetooth to detect proximity to others who have installed the app on their mobile devices, and it notifies users when they’ve been in close contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.