Border Services President Confirms Emails Were Deleted in Accordance with Treasury Board Policy
The head of the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) has disclosed that the agency eliminated crucial emails regarding the $59.5 million ArriveCan app following the departure of the agency’s former chief information officer.
During a government operations committee meeting on Oct. 22, Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie cited a communication from CBSA President Erin O’Gorman. The committee had requested all emails and text messages of Minh Doan, the former CBSA chief information officer.
As reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, O’Gorman mentioned that Doan’s email account was deleted in accordance with the Treasury Board Secretariat’s service and digital directive. The CBSA also stated that it did not have access to text messages between Doan and former CBSA director Cameron MacDonald.
“Are Canadians supposed to believe that you can engage in questionable activities—actions that may not be in the best interest of Canada, leave your position—and have no accountability for your actions?” Kusie questioned. “Can you commit misconduct while serving as a public servant in Canada, resign, and have all evidence erased?”
MPs on the government operations committee have been examining the ArriveCan app, which was utilized to monitor the COVID-19 vaccination status of travelers entering Canada. The auditor general concluded in a Feb. 13 report that Canadians did not receive value from the app and that the CBSA’s documentation, financial records, and controls were deemed “so inadequate” that the exact cost of ArriveCan could not be determined.
Doan had previously informed MPs that he mistakenly deleted approximately 1,700 emails from his laptop while trying to transfer files from his old computer to a new one in 2023. These emails pertained to the awarding of sole-sourced contracts to ArriveCan contractors.
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As part of the investigation, concerns have emerged about the selection of the company GC Strategies to work on ArriveCan. Doan had stated he was not responsible for choosing GC Strategies but rather that he “opted for a strategic direction that fulfilled our urgent speed and agility needs at the time.”
MacDonald asserted that Doan was accountable for selecting GC Strategies, but Doan had threatened to shift blame to MacDonald and former executive director Antonio Utano during a contentious phone conversation. This occurred when then-Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino was displeased with news reports about ArriveCan’s excessive costs.
MacDonald and Utano also testified that Doan deliberately erased thousands of ArriveCan-related emails as part of a cover-up by CBSA managers. Doan refuted these claims, labeling the accusation as an effort by government officials to hold him responsible for their actions, despite “mounting evidence proving I had no affiliation with any of the vendors in question.”
