The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has admitted it cannot quantify the number of lives saved by the ArriveCAN app, which cost $54 million to develop and deploy and is now the subject of an investigation by the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.
“The Agency cannot quantify the exact number of lives indirectly saved through ArriveCan,” the Agency wrote to the committee. “Without the use of restrictive measures and without high levels of vaccination Canada could have experienced higher numbers of infections and hospitalizations.”
On April 22, 2020, the federal government mandated that those travelling across the Canada–U.S. border would need to download the ArriveCAN app and pre-submit proof of vaccination prior to their arrival in Canada. The requirement was suspended on Oct. 1, 2022.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, ArriveCAN was initially described as a timesaver, with the Department of Public Safety writing in a June 5 Inquiry of Ministry that the app saved travellers “about five minutes.”
The federal government’s Chief Technology Officer Minh Doan also told the committee on Nov. 14 that the app was “value for money,” and “as I am…
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