Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during Question Period, in Ottawa, on June 19.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said allegations of abuse in federal contracting are unacceptable after the RCMP revealed this week that it has many criminal investigations under way into government procurement.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme and Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn told a parliamentary committee earlier this week that more than half a dozen investigations are looking into federal contracting.
The RCMP leadership said one investigation is focused on contracting related to the government’s ArriveCan app for cross-border travellers. However, the force declined to list all of the other investigations, saying that doing so could put at risk the integrity of that police work.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre raised the comments Wednesday in Question Period.
“Will the Prime Minister promise to personally co-operate with this criminal investigation so that Canadians can know where their money went?” he asked.
“This situation is obviously unacceptable, which is why authorities are looking into the procurement process,” Mr. Trudeau replied. “Anyone who took advantage of our COVID responses to save Canadian lives should face consequences. All federal contracts with these companies have been suspended as the investigations continue.”
The RCMP did not say which individuals or companies are under investigation. However, the police did say in April that they searched the Ottawa-area home of Kristian Firth, managing partner of GCStrategies, the two-person company that was the primary contractor on the ArriveCan project.
Auditor-General Karen Hogan’s February report on ArriveCan said about $59.5-million was spent on outside contractors to build and maintain the app, with $19.1-million going to GCStrategies, a figure the company disputes.
The federal government announced earlier this year that it has suspended all federal contracts with GCStrategies, as well as two other contractors that worked on ArriveCan, Dalian Enterprises and Coradix Technology Consulting.
Beyond ArriveCan, federal records show the three companies combined have received hundreds of federal contracts worth more than $1-billion over the past 13 years.
Ms. Hogan’s report also expressed concern with the lack of documentation around how the Canada Border Services Agency selected GCStrategies for ArriveCan and a larger contract that followed.
The report said GCStrategies was directly involved in setting narrow terms for a $25-million contract it ultimately won.
While the contract was awarded through a competitive process, GCStrategies was the only company to submit a proposal.
“Some of the requirements or eligibility criteria were extremely narrow, which likely prevented competition,” the Auditor-General’s report said.
After Mr. Firth declined to answer committee questions about that finding in the report, the House of Commons took the highly unusual step in April of calling him to the bar of the House of Commons to be found in contempt of Parliament. He was also asked questions by MPs in the Commons chamber, including to comment on the report’s finding.
Mr. Firth told the House of Commons that he put forward three suggestions during the process and said he does not believe he placed himself in a conflict of interest.