The federal government’s ArriveCan app, once a requirement for cross-border travellers during the pandemic, is now used by only 4% of travelers, according to new federal data.
ArriveCan was originally designed to collect COVID-19 vaccination info and to also streamline border crossings. But the app saw a steep decline after the feds finally stopped requiring it in October 2022.
From the start of January to the end of October in 2024, Canada saw close to 80 million travellers arrive by air, rail, boat, or land crossings.
Of these arrivals, only 3.4 million (about 4%) people opted to use ArriveCan, according to figures revealed in Parliament following a question by Conservative MP Tony Baldinelli of Niagara Falls, Ontario, according to Blacklock’s Reporter (via Postmedia).
Back in the spring, this number was pegged at 3.6 million annually according to the feds.
“During the pandemic, ArriveCan was a tool to collect mandatory health information while facilitating travel,” said the federal cabinet. “The app is now an optional tool for travelers who want to expedite their border experience.”
The scandalous $60 million ArriveCan app is under audit and facing an RCMP investigation into allegations of fraudulent billing. The auditor general says the final cost of the app remains unknown, due to a lacking paper trail.
Concerns about mismanagement emerged after former Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) official Minh Doan admitted to accidentally destroying relevant emails on his government-issued laptop.
Further controversy stems from earlier claims about the app’s benefits. Initially, officials said ArriveCan would save travelers five minutes at the border, a promise later disproven.
A 2023 report by the Public Health Agency of Canada also stated there was no evidence to support claims that the app saved lives during the pandemic, contradicting the agency’s managers.
The ArriveCan program has drawn significant criticism, including being labeled “ArriveScam” by some. As audits continue, its future remains uncertain.
Back in March, the CBSA said ArriveCan still costs $3 million per year to run. According to the CBSA, it costs $1 when someone makes a digital submission, but a paper submission is $3.
The country’s auditor general launched a full audit of government contracts awarded to GC Strategies, back in October. The consulting firm consisted of two people that outsourced work for ArriveCan’s development, while collecting $20 million dollars in fees from federal contracts. This is on top of the RCMP investing the firm as well, including allegations of “ghost contracting”.
“I do believe ArriveCan provided value for money. I don’t believe it provided best value for the taxpayer,” said Jonathan Moor, Vice-President of the CBSA’s Comptrollership Branch, in March.
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The auditor general says the final cost of the app remains unknown, due to a lacking paper trail.
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Liberal government in one of their more finest moments.
Unbelievably, despite it being provably useless and providing 0 benefit for travellers, there were people that absolutely needed to find a way to defend this app. They claimed it saved them time (it couldn’t) or it actually had public health benefits (it didn’t). They even claimed it wasn’t always just a scam meant to transfer money to Trudeau friends/supporters.
These people are allowed to vote.
Judging by recent events, apparently Trudeau doesn't have too many friends/supporters anymore.
Unfortunate it took so long for people to wake up to his destructive policies and his faux-compassion and his shame based ideology but glad he’s on his way out (kicking and screaming if necessary) soon.
Of course kicking and screaming, this is how entitled children behave but yeah, I'm glad he is on his way out and from the sounds of things, many within his own party are too.
Absolute incompitence. Trudeau truly made sure the conservatives will be in power for the next decade if not 30 years.
Far, far worse than his Father.
Incompetence
It needs to die a slow death like the idea itself and, so too should the liberal government who allowed us to get ripped off for millions of $ to create it.
Prison.
My biggest issue is that our family has tried to use it three times over the past 18 months, and we were never able to retrieve our ArriveCan-completed submission. So we anyway had to redo it at the kiosk on arrival.
Why?
At the kiosk you would scan an ArriveCan generated QR code to retrieve the landing card you completed in ArriveCan. Every time the kiosk would just state “Could not retrieve declaration” or something to that effect.
What made you think to use the app, since you’d have to use the kiosk anyway?
The few times I used it when it was mandatory, it saved one click at the kiosk. Could never answer why people used it, once it was made optional.
For all our flights we had quite a few hours in transit (the last flight was 11 hours in Frankfurt). So I thought if I could get rid of admin beforehand it would be great. But we won't be doing that again, as there is no use in trying to be proactive with a useless system.
That's strange. I use the app every single time come home from work and never have a problem. It doesn't really save much time, but it does work.
I like ArriveCan. Never had problems using it when coming back.