$93 Million for a COVID Questionnaire
A web form with 10 fields and a QR code. Estimated at $80,000. Final cost: $93 million. Two-person contractor. Zero lines of code written. 76% of subcontractors did no work. 10,000 wrongful quarantines. Every Liberal MP voted against recovering the money.
This page summarises multiple primary sources linked inline. The reader is looking at a documented record of the ArriveCAN procurement process, financial overruns, and technical findings.
The Contract Chain
The Auditor General's 2024 Spring Report documented a procurement chain that broke every rule in the book. Here's how $80,000 became $59.5 million:
| Entity | Role | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) | Client — ordered the app | $59.5M total |
| GCStrategies | Prime contractor — 2 employees | $19.1M+ |
| Dalian Enterprises | Subcontractor Layer 2 | Undisclosed |
| Coradix Technology Consulting | Subcontractor Layer 3 | Undisclosed |
| Various IT firms | Layer 4 — actual developers (some) | Undisclosed |
Auditor General Finding
"We found that CBSA did not adequately document why it awarded the contract to GCStrategies instead of others. CBSA did not document a clear rationale for the sole-source contracts. 76% of the subcontractors billed through GCStrategies performed no work on ArriveCAN."
177 Bugs, 10,000+ Wrongful Quarantines
ArriveCAN was supposed to streamline border processing. Instead, it wrongfully quarantined an estimated 10,000+ travellers — sending them home for 14 days based on app errors, not health data. The app contained 177 documented bugs, including:
- Vaccination status not properly recorded — fully vaccinated travellers flagged as unvaccinated
- Random quarantine assignments generated by software errors
- Data not syncing between ArriveCAN and CBSA officer systems
- QR codes failing to scan at border — requiring manual processing anyway
- App crashing on older devices — disproportionately affecting elderly travellers
- French language errors making the app unusable for francophones
Impact
10,000+ Canadians were wrongfully told to quarantine for 14 days based on app glitches. They missed work. They missed family events. They were confined to their homes — not because of health data, but because of a $59.5M app that didn't work. Nobody at CBSA, PHAC, or GCStrategies was held accountable for the wrongful quarantines.
Key Players
Kristian Firth
Co-owner, GCStrategiesOne of two employees at GCStrategies — the company that received $19.1M+ as prime contractor for ArriveCAN. Appeared before the House committee. Found in contempt of Parliament for refusing to answer questions. Charged by RCMP in 2023 with fraud and breach of trust.
Darren Anthony
Co-owner, GCStrategiesThe other employee at GCStrategies. The two-person company won contracts through a standing offer arrangement. Charged by RCMP alongside Firth.
Minh Doan
Former CBSA VP, ITCBSA's Vice-President of Information Technology during ArriveCAN development. The AG found that CBSA's IT division did not adequately document procurement decisions or contractor deliverables. Suspended during investigation.
Cameron MacDonald
Former CBSA VPFormer Vice-President at CBSA who signed off on ArriveCAN contracts. Testified before the House committee that he relied on subordinates for procurement decisions.
Timeline
The Real Question
ArriveCAN is not a technology story. It's a procurement story. The app itself was simple — a web form with approximately 10 input fields and a QR code generator. Any competent developer could build it in 3–5 days. Shopify processes billions of dollars in transactions. Tim Hortons pays 15 employees on time for $30/month. A CS student could build ArriveCAN as a weekend project.
The question is not "how did the app fail?" — it's "how did 40+ contract amendments get approved without anyone asking why a $80K project costs $59.5 million?" The answer: emergency COVID procurement rules bypassed normal oversight, and nobody in the chain — CBSA management, Treasury Board, or the Minister's office — asked questions until the Auditor General did.
This is the same procurement system that produced Phoenix ($7.5B), the Long Gun Registry ($629M vs $2M budget), and Shared Services Canada (constant outages). ArriveCAN is not an outlier. It's the system working exactly as designed — for the contractors.
Sources
- Office of the Auditor General of Canada — 2024 Spring Report, "ArriveCAN Application" (Report 1)
- Office of the Auditor General of Canada — 2025 Report, GCStrategies contracts across 31 departments (106 contracts, $92.7M)
- House of Commons OGGO + PACP Committee findings — self-writing contracts, no proof of work
- CBSA internal procurement records (tabled in Parliament)
- RCMP criminal investigation — property raid April 2024, charges pending as of April 2026
- Speaker's ruling on contempt of Parliament — Kristian Firth (2024)
- CBC News — ArriveCAN investigation series (2022–2024)
- Globe and Mail — "The ArriveCAN Files" investigative reporting
- Parliamentary Budget Officer — cost estimates and analysis