ArriveCan Executives Received More Than $340,000 in Bonuses

A smartphone set to the opening screen of the ArriveCan app is seen in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Giordano Ciampini)

Federal executives associated with the ArriveCan app were awarded bonuses totalling more than $340,000 between 2020 and 2022, drawing criticism from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF).

“The government executives involved with ArriveCAN should be getting pink slips, not bonuses,” CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano said in a Feb. 8 press release.

“This is the ultimate example of failing government executives being rewarded with taxpayer-funded bonuses.”

The CTF’s information, obtained through government records, highlights the financial rewards given to eight executives from the Public Health Agency of Canada who played various roles in the development and management of the ArriveCan project from March 2020 to September 2022.

The parliamentary Committee on Government Operations and Estimates dedicated several months to examining the ArriveCan app, which monitored the COVID-19 vaccination status of individuals crossing the border between Canada and the United States. The core of the investigation revolved around the app’s final cost of $54 million and the legitimacy of the procurement and development process.

Numerous instances of alleged improprieties related to the app’s creation came to light during the committee hearings. A report from the federal procurement ombudsman on Jan. 29 revealed that 76 percent of the contractors enlisted for ArriveCan contributed no work to the app.

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MPs from the Liberal, New Democrat, and Bloc Québécois parties decided to halt the committee hearings on the app on Feb. 7, citing concerns that continuing the hearings could potentially interfere with ongoing investigations by the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP related to the scandal.

According to the CTF, ArriveCan executive bonuses were categorized into two types: “at-risk” and “performance” bonuses. For the fiscal years 2020–21 and 2021–22, five out of the eight executives received at-risk bonuses, and four received performance bonuses, with some overlap between the categories.

In total, the bonuses amounted to $342,929 over the two fiscal years. The specifics of these bonuses, including the exact criteria for their award, remain unclear, especially in relation to the executives’ contributions to the ArriveCAN application itself.

This financial reward system has sparked criticism from opposition parties stemming from the app’s cost overruns and operational challenges, with the project’s expenses ballooning from an initial estimate of $80,000 in April 2020 to $54 million by October 2022.

“Taxpayers are out of $54 million because of the ArriveCAN app,” Mr. Terrazano said when testifying before the committee in October 2023. “Which bureaucrat is out of a job? Which bureaucrat is even out of a bonus?”

A report that independent tech experts were able to recreate the app over a weekend for approximately $250,000 has added to the scrutiny of the project’s management. A small staffing firm in Ottawa was reportedly paid up to $2.7 million in commissions without performing any IT work on the project.

These revelations came ahead of a report by Canada’s auditor general on the ArriveCan app released on Feb. 12.