In extremely rare move, House of Commons set to question ArriveCan contractor

Last week, MPs unanimously agreed to find GC Strategies partner Kristian Firth in contempt of Parliament and ordered him to appear before the House to receive an admonishment from the Speaker.

MPs will, through the Speaker, ask Firth to answer the questions he avoided during his appearance at the government operations committee last month.

The auditor general has previously reported that the soaring cost of the controversial ArriveCan project — estimated at roughly $60 million — was in part due to the government's over-reliance on outside contractors like GC Strategies.

A separate report by Canada's procurement ombudsman found that the criteria used in awarding the $25-million contract were "overly restrictive" and had "heavily favoured" GC Strategies.

During his committee appearance, MPs repeatedly asked Firth which government officials he worked with to develop the criteria for that contract.

Firth avoided those questions, citing an ongoing RCMP investigation into ArriveCan, even though he said he hadn't been contacted by the police force.