Somebody needs to resign

Somebody needs to resign

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc got the prime Ministerial hug when he was sworn in as House Leader.  That Minister or Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, must accept responsibility for the ArriveCAN debacle and resign their position.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it was obvious that contracting rules were not followed for the ArriveCan online application.  His well-rehearsed lines about the scandal tried to explain and rationalize that in the early days of the government’s COVID-19 panic, everything was in question.

It's easy for him to say that now, but even in difficult times there is a need to follow rules.  He further talked about how there are ongoing investigations and that there will be consequences for public servants who did not abide by the rules.  He was not aggressively questioned on the matter.

Not so fast.  Highly skilled and well-paid public employees did just not all of a sudden lose their brains.  Had they become part of the Liberal culture, where accountability was not even considered?  Were existing professional rules and procedures ignored, and 'getting it done' on behalf of the Trudeau team was what mattered?  In short, had the political neutrality of public service professionalism evaporated?

In my parliamentary experience, I cannot recall any instance in which a run-of-the-mill $80,000 job escalated to a million dollars, let alone $60 million — and nobody up the ladder questioned it?  Something was going on.

Let's recap.  The federal government launched ArriveCan in April 2020 to track health and contact information for people entering Canada during the pandemic, and to digitize customs and immigration declarations.  The app was then used to discriminate against people and rule by decree over the free movement of citizens.

Canada's Auditor General has now reported what she calls a glaring disregard for fundamental management and contracting practices, as ArriveCan was implemented. She also said the government's use of sole-sourced external contractors, which generally is against the rules, was partly responsible for the escalating costs.

Overall, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Public Health Agency of Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada repeatedly failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development and implementation of the ArriveCAN application.

Use of ArriveCAN was discontinued in October 2022.  However, the government now has a lot of data on Canadians travelers' contact and health information.  Who is looking after that now?  Who is protecting the security and privacy of the defunct computer program?  It's a serious legitimate question.

Auditor General Karen Hogan found the CBSA's documentation, financial records and controls so poor that she was unable to determine ArriveCAN's precise cost, and in the June 2022 update it was revealed that around 10,000 travelers were wrongly instructed to quarantine.  And these people have our private information?

One last thing.  Who is really responsible?  At the onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic, there was the excuse that the government departments did not have the skills and resources needed to develop the application. Therefore, somebody — a Minister, presumably Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, under whose umbrella CBSA falls, and upon the advice of civil servants — decided to choose external contractors.

That decision, as well as continued reliance on these external resources without conventional oversight appears to be part of the inflated cost of ArriveCAN.  We may never know.  The evidence trail and the identities of the people responsible were quickly buried once it appeared that the scam was going public.  Appears like a cover up.

Civil servants may advise and undertake the work.  But they do so under the authority of an elected official — in this case the Minister.  Meanwhile, the job of the elected official — the Minister — is to ensure that the work is done and the public trust is not abused.  That's the system.  That's how it is supposed to work.  But manifestly, that's not what happened.

In a media scrum, Prime Minister Trudeau could not deny the obvious of the scandal, but demurred when it was suggested that he take responsibility for the mess. "We need to make sure that there is accountability and transparency around that," he said.  For once, I agree with him. And if a civil servant broke the law, there should be fitting consequences.  

Nevertheless, it was the Minister's responsibility to see that the law was not broken.  So which Minister is going to acknowledge the failure, accept responsibility and in the interests of 'accountability and responsibility' actually resign — in the manner that 'our system' is supposed to work?

Ministers are responsible to Parliament for the conduct of their Ministry.  The legal standing of Ministerial responsibility is based on the oath taken by each Minister upon becoming a member of the Privy Council Ministers, and historical rules.

This responsibility includes the Minister’s own conduct, but it also extends to the departments under their purview and all actions taken by civil servants.  In case of wrongdoing, the Minister can be called on to take action to correct the situation, to apologize, and even resign from Cabinet.  Ministers are politically responsible for their civil servants.  A Minister can’t just blame the bureaucracy and walk away.  The current debacle is clearly a case where the Minister is duty bound to resign.