Poilievre urges RCMP to expand investigation into ArriveCAN scandal, says Trudeau used Covid to 'fill the pockets of his friends'

Conservative leader Pierre Polievre said Tuesday that he has asked the RCMP to “expand their criminal investigation” into the Trudeau government’s ArriveCAN app which cost taxpayers almost a thousand times the expected cost.

“After yesterday's auditor general revelations of corruption, waste and mismanagement, I have written to the RCMP asking them to expand their criminal investigation into the Prime Minister's ArriveSCAM. He has a track record of blocking criminal investigations. He tried to protect SNC Lavalin from prosecution, he blocked the RCMP from investigating his illegal vacation to billionaire island. Will he stay out of the way or really again try to block the RCMP criminal investigation into Arrive Scam,” Poilievre asked at the beginning of Tuesday’s Question Period in the House of Commons. 

Auditor General Karen Hogan revealed Monday that the Covid-era app was managed abysmally by the federal government with massive cost overruns. The app was supposed to enable travelers entering or reentering Canada with a quicker method of confirming their mandatory vaccination status but proved to be a financial disaster. The app was slated to cost $80,000 but ended with a final price tag of at least $59.5 million.

“The Canada Border Services Agency’s documentation, financial records, and controls were so poor that we were unable to determine the precise cost of the ArriveCAN application. Using the information that was available, we estimated the cost at approximately $59.5 million,” Hogan wrote in her report.

Speaking at a House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Hogan said her audit confirmed that the government simply did not keep accurate books and failed to track spending or contracting decisions. 

“That paper trail should have existed,” she told the committee. “Overall, this audit shows a glaring disregard for basic management and contracting practices.”

Trudeau refused to apologize for or even explain the abuse of taxpayer funds and responded to Poilievre by saying, “The COVID-19 pandemic was a once-in-a-generation, even once-in-a-century occurrence in which every decision we took was designed to protect Canadians lives.”

“We will, of course, encourage the RCMP to do its work but it doesn't take politicians or even leaders of the opposition to tell the RCMP to do their job. They do their job.”

Poilievre shot back that Trudeau saw the Covid pandemic as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fill the pockets of his friends.”

He noted that the “revelations yesterday are the following: one that the company that benefited drafted the terms of the contract. Second, two people working in the basement of a house received $20 million under a contract for an app that should have only cost $80,000. There was also whiskey given to officials."