In the interest of transparency we cannot release these documents
The CBSA, the main federal agency responsible for the app, missed the committee’s original deadline, which called for the documents to be supplied by the end of October. The agency said the need to have the files translated into both official languages would cause considerable delay.
The Canada Border Services Agency has handed over hundreds of pages of documents related to the government’s use of private contractors to build the ArriveCan app,
BUT the chair of the committee that requested the files over two months ago says the agency’s high level of redactions is unacceptable.
In an Oct. 17 vote supported by
ALL PARTIES, MPs on the Commons government operations committee ordered federal departments to hand over, “in an unredacted format,” a wide range of documents related to the app, including a list of contractors and subcontractors, and copies of invoices.
Conservative MP and committee chair Kelly McCauley said he is disappointed the CBSA took so long to respond to the committee’s production order. Many of the documents arrived just as Parliament was about to rise until late January.
How ‘bout that for a coincidence….if only Parliament & it’s committees had just relocated to Quebec where there’s now only ONE official language unlike the rest of the entire country….but that’s a different story.
“I’m very greatly concerned that documents are redacted, blocking any ability for us to see what the government was actually buying and how many units. All we get is a lump-sum price,” he said. “I suspect the committee will probably (
have to?) put through another motion demanding unredacted documents.”
The company that received the most federal outsourcing work on the project, GCstrategies, relies heavily on subcontractors to deliver on its contracts. Neither the company
NOR the government will reveal the identities of the subcontractors.
But above a few paragraphs ALL PARTIES agreed to getting non-redacted documents on this? Maybe the memo to the NDP/Liberal MP’s stating “NOPE” was either redacted or too secret for them to see?
MPs on the Commons government operations committee have ordered federal departments to hand over a wide range of documents related to the app
apple.news
Bloc Québécois MP Julie Vignola said the level of government redactions means the exact services provided and their costs remain a mystery.
NDP MP and committee member Gord Johns said the redactions contradict the government’s pledges to be transparent.
Again, Conservative MP and committee chair Kelly McCauley said he is disappointed the CBSA took so long to respond to the committee’s production order. Many of the documents arrived just as Parliament was about to rise until late January….
Green Party MP Elizabeth May, she was probably there or maybe she wasn’t. She may or may not have an option.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who is a committee member and the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, said in an e-mail that IT subcontractors tend to be workers that are acting almost as employees of primary contractors
(or Former Liberal Party Members, or Friends of Liberal Party Members, or outsourced to the Chinese Government, etc…). As a result, he said, there could be legitimate privacy reasons for not revealing their identities.
Mr. Housefather added that he is “far more sympathetic” to the concerns being raised over redactions to descriptions of the services provided.
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