ArriveCan and the government’s outsourcing problem

On Wednesday, Kristian Firth became the first person in over a century held in contempt of Parliament and ordered to answer MP questions. It all has to do with the ArriveCan app, which his company, GC Strategies, was awarded millions of dollars to help develop.
An Auditor-General’s report estimates the app cost taxpayers $59.5 million and most of the work was outsourced to companies like GC strategies. Why the app cost so much and who got that money has come under scrutiny.
Bill Curry, the Globe’s Deputy Ottawa Bureau Chief, is on the show to tell us about what’s been going on with ArriveCan and what we learned from Kristian Firth’s historic appearance at the House of Commons.
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[@Dam-a-fence]

An app designed to make record keeping possible, didn't keep good records of itself. Seems intentional to me.

[@roberttucker4196]

Only in Canada does criminal activity get referred to as a problem .

[@lemming573]

This app should have cost 1-1.5 million to develop. I've developed software before. 60 million is insane.

[@kevindamen6813]

That Depends, If all the requirements are known up front, and are properly documented, then yes for the front end, I agree, (for the back end, depending on what it is doing, could be far more expensive) BUT... if the requirements are poorly documented, and keep changing daily or weekly, then costs will explode. So it is both possible that it could be cheap, AND possible that it could be extremely expensive Software development is both fun and crazy

[@jrb_sland]

Good interview. Thank you.

[@ianleslie6971]

A great follow-up, So many avenues to run down. Probably thousands, many even more politically sensitive. Probably could keep a fraud squad working day and night no matter who's in government.. Actually that would be money well spent.

[@shakyjake2133]

This 60 million should come out of this contractor's pocket, directly to Canada, for Canada. But it won't. This government has such a lack of accountability it's amazing. But Canada (Ontario, Quebec) voted it in. Hopefully they will have developed more than a few brain cells during this period. Unless they enjoy the service to debt steadily increasing over healthcare.

[@BilicsanHebel123]

So disappointed!!!

[@pdenis2919]

if the goverment hire qualified worker instead of hiring any immigrant to look good we would never need outside consultant

[@kevindamen6813]

True, but 1: That would require the government paying fair market rates for IT skills that are in demand. 2: Once hired and protected by the union, how do you make them keep their skills up-to-date? 3: Once hired the government will have to keep paying market rates or risk loosing their in demand IT skills to outside employers. Its doable, but it would be costly, Steven Harper decided that: Its much cheaper to hire consultants for days, weeks, months, years... and then getting rid of them with a single days notice. The Harper Government at work