Nothing to suggest $54M ArriveCan app saved lives, committee hears

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Despite the program’s hefty $54-million price tag, the Public Health Agency of Canada acknowledged it has no evidence the ArriveCan app saved lives.

“The agency cannot quantify the exact number of lives indirectly saved through ArriveCan,” the agency wrote the Commons government operations committee, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “Without the use of restrictive measures and without high levels of vaccination Canada could have experienced higher numbers of infections and hospitalizations.”

It didn’t elaborate.

On April 22, 2020, Cabinet mandated that cross-border travellers download the app to pre-submit proof of vaccination before arrival in Canada. That requirement was paused on Oct. 1, 2022.

The app was initially described as a timesaver. Mandatory use of ArriveCan saved travellers “about five minutes,” the Department of Public Safety wrote in a June 5 Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons.

Later, managers declared ArriveCan was also a lifesaver.

“It cost $54 million and it was value for money,” Minh Doan, chief federal technology officer, testified on Nov. 14 at the government operations committee. “As far as I’m concerned, it saves lives.”

However, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West) sought more than words.

“Would you provide something in writing to us quantifying that statement?” asked McCauley, the committee chair. “We have heard repeatedly from people on the witness stand about how it has miraculously saved lives. Can you let us know how many?”

Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski (Thunder Bay-Rainy River, Ont.), who is a medical doctor, acknowledged the claim couldn’t be verified.

“Having studied public health, I would think that finding that evidence is going to be very difficult,” said Powlowski.

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Vaccine mandates, lockdowns and other restrictive measures saved lives, the Public Health Agency has repeatedly claimed.

“We have done a study in which we modeled and almost 800,000 lives were saved,” Harpreet Kochhar, then-agency president, testified last Feb. 6 at the Commons public accounts committee.

“1.9 million hospitalizations were avoided and 34 million COVID cases were prevented by making sure there was early access to vaccines and we had public health measures in place,” said Kochhar, without explaining the figures.

In a follow-up briefing note, the agency said pandemic restrictions “might have saved up to 760,000 lives.”