The federal government has no intention of abandoning the controversial ArriveCan app because it provides the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) with key health information about travelers who test positive for COVID-19 through online testing. airports and land borders, senior government sources told CTV News. .
PHAC uses the data that travelers enter into the ArriveCan app to identify the vaccination status and destinations of people who test positive as part of Canada’s mandatory random border testing program.
With provinces no longer collecting meaningful data from PCR tests conducted at the local and provincial levels, high-ranking government sources describe the data obtained from the ArriveCan app as the last line of defense against COVID in Canada.
PHAC said the process of selecting who gets tested at a border crossing is determined by a computer algorithm that “selects a representative sample of fully vaccinated travelers based on statistical parameters,” according to an agency statement.
Those statistical parameters set by PHAC are based in part on global epidemiological trends, which a senior government source admits may cause travelers coming to Canada from countries that have a low vaccination rate or are experiencing an outbreak, are more likely to be flagged for mandatory random testing. .
PHAC believes the border tests and information gleaned from the ArriveCan app make the agency “better prepared for potential future waves.”
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert at the University of Toronto Health Network, believes the detailed data obtained through the ArriveCan app can help PHAC, if the information is used correctly.
“This could give Canada some intelligence on variants of concern circulating in other parts of the world, which can be very useful information,” Bogoch said.
PHAC only accesses ArriveCan data if a traveler tests positive for COVID-19, but all data entered into the app “will be retained for a minimum of two years after its last administration use” by the Agency. of Canada Border Services (CBSA), in accordance with the privacy notice within the ArriveCan application.
The same privacy notice also states that personal information submitted on the app may be shared with a wide variety of groups, including “other government institutions, such as provincial, territorial, municipal governments, or international health organizations.”
Conservative transportation critic Melissa Lantsman said she is concerned that the government has not previously established a clear link between the information that travelers enter into the ArriveCan app and the test information collected by PHAC.
“I think most Canadians don’t know that. And I think Canadians have a right to know where their data is being used, for how long, and what the purpose of that is,” Lantsman said.
Mandatory random testing was suspended June 11 to help ease congestion at airports and was scheduled to be reinstated July 1. However, the federal government delayed his return until mid-July.
A senior government source said the reason the tests were postponed was because the CBSA was unable to update the ArriveCan app to help accommodate unvaccinated Canadian travelers before the Canada Day deadline.
Industry leaders and unions have called on the federal government to remove the requirement to complete the ArriveCan app to help ease chaos at airports.
Mark Weber, president of the Immigration and Customs Union, believes removing the app would improve the experience for those entering Canada.
“Removing the app would shorten wait times, give our officers fewer tasks, and allow us to focus more on doing the customs work we really need to do,” Weber said.
Alexander Cohen, a spokesman for Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino, whose office is responsible for ArriveCan, said the app helps streamline the travel process by ensuring that people entering Canada complete the necessary documents before seeing an agent. customs.
Cohen claimed that 99.71 per cent of travelers arriving in Canada by air “successfully fill in” their information on the app, a number that Weber said is so high only because customs agents help travelers. to complete the application.
“The real numbers are closer to 60 percent or 70 percent, who came in with the completed application, and many come in not even knowing they had to complete the application,” Weber said.