MPP wants health-app company to return funds

A Progressive Conservative MPP wants a private app company to return $1.5 million in provincial money because of potential links to the Equifax data breach of personal information.

Sylvia Jones (Dufferin-Caledon) said Carrot Rewards — an app the government uses to promote healthy living with points awarded for taking quizzes or challenges — should forfeit funding it received last July.

At issue is the fact the Torontobased company has a contract with Borrowell, which uses Equifax data to give users their credit scores.

“They should return the money,” said Jones, noting the government is notorious for handing out funding to private companies with little oversight. “We have Trillium grants that are given out to not-for-profits and they have to do quarterly updates, they have to prove the money that was given was spent appropriately.

“And yet we give away $1.5 million and we don’t follow up to make sure it’s actually being spent the way they promised it would be,” she said.

Andreas Souvaliotis, Carrot Insights CEO, was surprised by Jones’s call, and said the $1.5 million was used by the government to purchase reward points for the app to give out to users.

Souvaliotis emphasized that Carrot was developed in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada.

“We are not Equifax; we are not even once-removed,” he said. “We have nothing to do (with Equifax). We are working with good policymakers to encourage Canadians to live better, healthier and more financially responsible lives.”