So much for ArriveCan app usage.
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New federal data says only 4% of cross-border travelers are using it, according to Blacklock’s Reporter, with voluntary use plummeting once cabinet quit mandating the app’s use on Oct. 1, 2022.
“During the pandemic, ArriveCan was a tool to collect mandatory health information while facilitating travel,” cabinet wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons.
“The app is now an optional tool for travelers who want to expedite their border experience.”
The inquiry shows of the 79,768,124 people who arrived in Canada by air, rail, boat or motor vehicle at land crossings between Jan. 1 to Oct. 27, 2024, only 3,476,401 used ArriveCan, which amounts to about 4%.
The figures came after Conservative MP Tony Baldinelli (Niagara Falls, Ont.) asked about the app’s usage.
The $59.5 million ArriveCan program is still being audited and there’s an RCMP investigation into fraudulent billing.
A 2023 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons said mandatory use of the app was initially supposed to save travelers “about five minutes,” according to the Department of Public Safety but that estimate proved to be untrue.
Managers later claimed ArriveCan saved lives but the Public Health Agency in a 2023 report to the Commons government operations committee said there was no evidence to support that claim.
“The Agency cannot quantify the exact number of lives indirectly saved through ArriveCan,” it wrote.