FEDERAL NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Monday, reacting to the Auditor General’s report on ArriveCan, said in a statement: “As Canadians were dealing with the pandemic, the out-of-touch Liberals used that period to make rich consultants richer by handing over millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money—without keeping the receipts.”

Singh said: “Monday’s damning report from the Auditor General (AG) shows that an estimated $59.5 million was handed over to wealthy consulting companies like GCStrategies—many of them were paid to do no work—to launch the failed ArriveCan app in April 2020. The AG’s report also revealed that this careless decision has been made with little transparency. A lot of the information needed to hold the Liberals accountable hasn’t been kept or recorded.”

Singh said that this was the result of years of Conservatives and Liberals creating a system that allows wealthy consultants to procure government contracts and make millions in profits at the expense of our professional public service and Canadian taxpayers.

He pointed out: “The Conservatives are no strangers to these kinds of scandals. Canadians won’t forget the Phoenix Pay System fiasco that resulted in families’ scrambling to cover their mortgages and bills.”

Singh said: “New Democrats will be waiting for the RCMP’s investigation into the ArriveCan scandal to finish. Canadians deserve accountability and transparency. That’s why New Democrats are fighting every day to make Ottawa work for you, not wealthy consultant companies.”