A person uses the ArriveCan app on Feb. 9.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Senior federal Procurement Department officials are rejecting accusations from an employee linked to the controversial ArriveCan project that they pressed her to lie to internal investigators.
The Globe and Mail has reviewed a recording of a key conversation between the two managers and the employee and it does not contain any clear reference to not telling the truth.
However, a lawyer assisting Diane Daly, a former Canada Border Services Agency employee who handled ArriveCan contracting files, told The Globe that the call amounted to pressure on her to legitimize “manufactured storylines.”
The two senior officials were responding to parliamentary committee testimony provided in August by Ms. Daly.
ArriveCan was an initially mandatory software tool aimed at facilitating cross-border travel during the height of the pandemic’s frequently changing health requirements. The app’s cost ballooned over time to nearly $60-million and remains as a voluntary option.
Ms. Daly told MPs on the public accounts committee that she was suspended in March as a form of retribution by senior managers because she refused to lie to investigators who are reviewing allegations of cozy ties between private contractors and public servants.
Ms. Daly said she felt intimidated by her former director-general, Lysane Bolduc, and director Tom von Schoenberg at the Procurement Department, where she worked after leaving the CBSA.
During that appearance, Ms. Daly alleged that Ms. Bolduc “insisted on meeting me and told me in a [Microsoft] Teams meeting to give false testimony against my former bosses.” Ms. Daly said she had responded during that December meeting that she had nothing negative to say about them.
Both Ms. Bolduc and Mr. von Schoenberg rejected the allegations during a joint appearance before the same committee Wednesday evening.
“I want to be very clear about Ms. Daly’s statements in this regard. They are false,” said Ms. Bolduc. “Neither of us asked Diane Daly to engage in dishonest activities. On the contrary, we offered our support during what we understood to be a personally difficult time for her.”
Ms. Bolduc said the Dec. 14, 2023, conversation was the first time that she ever recalls meeting with Ms. Daly. Ms. Bolduc said Ms. Daly reported to her through several layers of management.
The CBSA is conducting an internal review into allegations of contracting misconduct involving Cameron MacDonald and Antonio Utano, two former senior CBSA officials who worked with GCStrategies, the primary contractor on ArriveCan. They’ve since been suspended with pay and have criticized the investigation as lacking independence. Like Ms. Daly, they also say they are being punished for defying senior managers.
Ms. Daly worked under Mr. Utano and Mr. MacDonald during her time at the CBSA.
Ms. Daly provided the public accounts committee with a recording of her December video conference with Ms. Bolduc and Mr. von Schoenberg. The audio and transcript was obtained and reviewed by The Globe Thursday.
During the call, Ms. Bolduc tells Ms. Daly that the CBSA investigators want to speak with her as part of their investigation into Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano because her name “pops up many, many times.” Ms. Bolduc said in the December conversation that Ms. Daly is not under investigation and that the CBSA wants to talk to her because “in some of the stories that they’re developing, there’s holes.”
Ms. Bolduc said Ms. Daly has an obligation to respond and said she and Mr. von Schoenberg would support her. She also tells Ms. Daly several times to let her know if anyone has been threatening her.
Chris Spiteri, a lawyer who said he is assisting Ms. Daly free of charge, told The Globe in an e-mail that Ms. Bolduc’s references to story holes and her comments about threats, which he said are in reference to Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano – who Mr. Spiteri is also representing – amounted to pressure on Ms. Daly to change her story.
He pointed out that Ms. Daly said in the call that Mr. Utano and Mr. MacDonald are very honest, very transparent and have integrity.
“But Bolduc insisted that Diane had to appear to fill the ‘holes’ in the stories CBSA are developing to ‘target’ Utano and MacDonald. Diane was pressured to legitimize CBSA’s manufactured storylines against Utano and MacDonald,” said Mr. Spiteri in an e-mail Thursday.
Ms. Daly told MPs in August that the Jan. 15 video conference interview with CBSA investigators that she agreed to lasted over three hours and was “hostile.” The committee requested a transcript of that interview and one Liberal MP on the committee who read it, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, told The Globe Thursday that he disagreed that it was hostile.
Auditor-General Karen Hogan released a report in February that expressed strong concern that GCStrategies was directly involved in setting narrow terms for a $25-million contract it ultimately won that included some ArriveCan work.
Kristian Firth, the managing partner of GCStrategies, was called to the bar of the House of Commons for questioning in April, where he was found in contempt of Parliament. During that appearance, he identified Ms. Daly as his contact, saying he provided her with suggestions related to writing requests for proposals.
Mr. Firth’s comment led to Ms. Daly’s committee appearance in August.
Ms. Bolduc told MPs Wednesday that Ms. Daly was initially considered to be a potential witness in an internal CBSA investigation, but then became a subject in an internal investigation in March that was launched by the Procurement Department, which led to Ms. Daly’s suspension.
“We judged that it was more appropriate to remove her from her procurement duties, given the investigation, and place her on administrative leave with pay at that time,” said Ms. Bolduc.
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said the testimony from Ms. Daly and Ms. Bolduc is yet another example of public servants pointing fingers at each other and providing contradictory testimony over what he described as the “Arrivescam scandal.”
Mr. Erskine-Smith said during the hearing that he questions the benefit of further public hearings into Ms. Daly’s testimony until MPs receive the findings of the various investigations that are under way.
Mr. Erskine-Smith said he has not seen evidence to support Ms. Daly’s allegation that she was threatened by Ms. Bolduc.
“The idea of throwing accusations out without evidence to back them up against civil servants who are coming before this committee leaves me with significant concerns,” he said.