ArriveCan contractor found in contempt of Parliament, ordered to appear before the House

MPs agreed to a motion Monday that found GC Strategies partner Kristian Firth in contempt of Parlia‐ ment for refusing to an‐ swer certain questions dur‐ ing a House government operations committee ap‐ pearance last month.

GC Strategies was the main contractor for the con‐ troversial ArriveCan app. In addition to being found in contempt, Firth is also being ordered to appear "before the bar" of the House of Commons to receive a public rebuke from the Speaker.

The motion, adopted by unanimous consent after nearly a full day of debate, orders Firth to appear after question period on Wednes‐ day, April 17.

An auditor general report found that the soaring cost of the project - estimated at roughly $60 million - was in part due to the government's over-reliance on outside con‐ tractors like GC Strategies.

That same report found that GC Strategies was in‐ volved in developing require‐ ments that were later used for an ArriveCan contract. That contract - valued at $25 million - was later awarded to GC Strategies, the report says.

A separate report by Canada's procurement om‐ budsman found that the cri‐ teria used in awarding the $25 million contract were "overly restrictive" and "heav‐ ily favoured" GC Strategies.

During his committee ap‐ pearance, MPs repeatedly asked Firth which govern‐ ment officials he worked with to develop the criteria for that contract. Firth avoided those questions, citing an on‐ going RCMP investigation in‐ to ArriveCan, even though he said he hadn't been con‐ tacted by the police force.

Public admonishment be‐ fore the House is a very rare measure that has only been used five times since the ear‐ ly 1900s. It's referred to as being "brought before the bar" in reference to a brass rail meant to bar strangers from entering the chamber.

Former MPs Ian Waddell and Keith Martin were ad‐ monished by the Speaker in 1991 and 2002 respectively.

Firth will be the third pri‐ vate citizen to be admon‐ ished since 1913. The most recent case was in 2021, when Iain Stewart, the thenpresident of the Public Health Agency of Canada, ap‐ peared before the House af‐ ter the agency failed to turn over documents to a parlia‐ mentary committee relating to the firing of two scientists from the National Microbi‐ ology Laboratory in Win‐ nipeg.

Beyond the reprimand, MPs are also allocating time to ask Firth questions when he appears before the House. Each recognized party will have three rounds of questions asked and an‐ swered through the Speaker.

It's been over a century since anyone has been or‐ dered to appear before the bar to answer questions in front of the House.

In February 1913, R.C. Miller was brought before the House to answer ques‐ tions related to bribery alle‐ gations in relation to govern‐ ment contracts. Miller previ‐ ously had refused to answer questions before the House public accounts committee and did so again when he ap‐ peared before the bar. In re‐ sponse, MPs ordered that Miller be imprisoned.

It's unclear what conse‐ quences Firth could face should he decline to answer questions before the House. Monday's motion suggests that the government opera‐ tions committee will "consid‐ er" Firth's testimony and " if necessary, recommend fur‐ ther action."