Former CBSA chief says he doesn’t know who chose controversial ArriveCan contractor

The former head of the Canada Border Services Agency defended its response to the pandemic under his leadership, telling MPs on a parliamentary committee Thursday that he is “proud” of the work it did.

John Ossowski, who was CBSA president when it oversaw the creation of the ArriveCan app, appeared before MPs for the fourth time to address the controversy surrounding the project.

“Yes, there should have been financial coding set up right at the beginning so that we could track the expenses more carefully,” he said.

“All the rules were in place. It appears, unfortunately, that they were not always followed so I make no excuses for the lack of documentation … that’s not acceptable. That should not have happened.”

Auditor General Karen Hogan’s February report estimated ArriveCan cost taxpayers roughly $59.5 million, in part because of the agency’s reliance on external contractors. That same report said the total cost of the app is “impossible to calculate” because of CBSA’s “poor financial record keeping.”

“If I could roll back the clock, there would have been some changes but I remain proud of the work that I did and my team did during the pandemic,” Ossowski said.

Ossowski said that the need to replace paper documents with a digital alternative that could collect health information during the pandemic required the CBSA to seek staffing and expertise from outside of government. 

“Mobile app expertise is a relatively new field for the government, and while the agency had some nascent capability, it was not sufficient, especially as the app changed frequently and became increasingly complex,” he said. 

Ossowski said it was not possible to hire public servants to develop the app because those skills are in high demand, and about 30 per cent of IT-related positions across the federal government remain vacant.

“I’m not sure we could have run a successful staffing process,” he added.

The auditor general’s report said that numerous contractors were used to develop the app. The largest contract, the report said, went to GC Strategies  — a two-person IT firm that subcontracted work to other contractors.

Questioned by Conservative MP Larry Brock on Thursday, Ossowski said he was unable to state who chose GC Strategies as one of the ArriveCan contractors.

“I do not know who chose GC Strategies. The auditor general was also not able to determine who chose GC Strategies,” he said.

Brock said it’s “absolutely incredible” that the former president of the CBSA was unable to tell the committee who made the decision.

Hogan’s February report estimated that GC Strategies received $19.1 million for its work on ArriveCan. But that estimate only includes money paid to the company up to March of last year.

Officials from the auditor general’s office told CBC News on background in February that the company could have received payments after that date.

The federal government says that from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2023, $55 million was spent on ArriveCan; $38.2 million of that money went to outside contractors.

Ossowski told the committee he was not involved in the ArriveCan contracting process because it did not require ministerial or Treasury Board approval.

Ossowski dismisses conflict of interest allegation

On Tuesday, the committee heard that Ossowski was given a one-day contract and paid $500 so that he could access emails, his calendar and documents to prepare him for a January committee appearance.

Ossowski now works for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), an international consulting firm that offers auditing, accounting and management services. 

Conservative MP Michael Barrett suggested Tuesday, and again on Thursday, that granting Ossowski access to CBSA information while he worked for PWC created a conflict of interest because the firm “does significant business with the government of Canada.”

“It seems that there would be a commercial advantage to having their senior adviser, an executive with this firm, to have access to all of [CBSA’s] information,” Barrett said Thursday.

Ossowski said he has recused himself from working with the CBSA in his new role and he is bound by conflict of interest provisions.

“Let me be clear. No business advantage has been sought or received as a result of this arrangement and I have always followed all conflict of interest requirements,” he said.

“Given all that’s gone on for this ArriveCan discussion over the last couple of years, do you really believe that I would further put myself into jeopardy by pursuing something that had some conflict of interest?”