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Devin Haska 2024-02-26 12:55:14 -08:00
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---
title: On a silver platter
date: 2024-02-26
excerpt: Or how Trudeau is giving away the election.
tags: ["canada", "politics", "arrivecan"]
---
[The Tyee have a pretty damning summary of Trudeau's latest political scandals](https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/02/23/Trudeau-Election-Chances-Are-Trashed/). All of these are, frankly, quite embarrassing.
Did you know that the contract for ArriveCan went to two dudes in a basement? A contract for an app the whole country (and those arriving to the country) would use. And that they didn't even do the IT work themselves - it was subcontracted out to another company. The budget was originally $80,000, and it went over (as you probably suspected). How much over budget you ask? How about **750x** over budget - _60 million dollars_. The app didn't even work properly!
A budget is often a best guess - an estimate - as to how much things will cost. Working in this industry it's not uncommon to have projects go over. In fact I'd say it's more or less a given it'll happen at some point. In my experience though we're talking 5 to 10x over budget - not by a factor in the _hundreds_. And when things go over budget, there are discussions about how we got here and what we're doing to fix the situation. How did the project keep going without anyone noticing or caring about the cost? How did we get to the end result without any transparency from the federal government?
It's a convenient excuse to blame the pandemic - we were in unprecedented times and we needed a solution _fast_, but that does not give the government carte blanche to waste money into a solution that never worked. There are _basic_ management practices being ignored. This is the sort of screw-up expected from a fledgling business (and not anywhere near this scale), not the federal government.
Even worse - when asked directly about the disaster that was ArriveCan - Trudeau dodged the question entirely like the slimy weasel he is.
> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday it's "obvious" contracting rules weren't followed during the development of the controversial ArriveCan app.
>
> from [CBC](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-says-rules-not-followed-arrivecan-1.7120318)
You think?
Pierre Pollievre (leader of the federal Conservative party) is calling for a criminal investigation from the RCMP into ArriveCan and I find myself agreeing here. I'm betting it's for the wrong reasons, but I'd still like to see an investigation continue.
With this bungle (and more scandals), the Liberals are effectively handing an already easy election for Pollievre on a silver platter. I'm not fond of Trudeau's leadership, nor the federal Liberal party, but I dread the Canada under Pollievre's leadership. It's all but guaranteed at this point, and that sucks.
I'm trying to have hope that it won't be awful, but [Pollievre isn't making it easy](https://globalnews.ca/news/10307833/poilievre-female-spaces-biological-females/#).
## Additional reading
[ArriveCan is a mess — but the scandal hides some bigger questions](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/arrivecan-trudeau-poilievre-pandemic-1.7113057)
[ArriveCan technical issues violated Charter rights, alleges new class-action application](https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/arrivecan-technical-issues-violated-charter-rights-alleges-new-class-action-application-1.6778004)