OTTAWA-
The problem-prone app, touted as an effective border tool at the start of the pandemic, has become a punching bag for critics who question its usefulness – but ArriveCan may be here to stay.
The government insists that it is a useful tool. Critics say it survived its use, if it ever had one.
Here’s a quick overview of what we currently know about it.
What is ArriveCan?
The app was introduced at the start of the pandemic and its use has been mandatory at air and land borders since February 2021, with exceptions in the event of accessibility issues or outages.
ArriveCan ostensibly screens inbound travelers for COVID-19 and, over the past year, has tracked their vaccination status. Refusing to use the app to provide required information may result in a fine of up to $5,000 under the Quarantine Act.
Did the app do what it was supposed to do?
A December 2021 report from the federal auditor general said the ArriveCan app was improving the quality of information the government collects about travellers. But poor data quality still meant nearly 138,000 COVID-19 test results could not be matched with incoming travellers, and only 25% of travelers advised to quarantine in government-authorized hotels have been verified to have stayed there.
Last month, due to an issue, ArriveCan asked about 10,200 travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days when they didn’t have to. Digital Public partner Bianca Wylie asked why the app would automate these decisions in the first place, rather than sticking to the information-gathering mandate it launched with.
Is the app only for COVID-19?
Recent government updates to the app have focused on effectiveness rather than public health measures. At air border crossings, it is now possible, although optional, to use the app to complete a customs declaration form prior to arrival at Pearson airport in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal.
Last week, the government announced plans to extend this option to air arrivals at Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Quebec City, Halifax and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
In a statement earlier this month focused on Canada’s broader airline fiasco, Transport Canada said those using the forms were cutting their time at the kiosks by a third. That’s 40 seconds less than the average two-minute visit, which the government says could “save hours of waiting” if everyone used it.
Are apps the way of the future for air travel?
Electronic data collection related to COVID-19 is mandatory at many international borders, and online forms are increasingly being used for non-pandemic reasons. Australia manages its electronic travel authorizations exclusively through an app, while an online authorization form will be required to visit the European Union from next year.
Canadian officials didn’t go so far as to say they were planning something similar. But Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters in June that although ArriveCan was created for COVID-19, “it has a technological capability beyond that to really reduce the time it takes for screening to the border”.
Prior to the pandemic, Canada had already started to digitize its border services with other initiatives, including the installation of customs kiosks at major airports from 2017 and the introduction of an electronic declaration application in 2018, which still exists, to reduce processing times.
Wylie said people weren’t using the app at high volume before the pandemic because it was voluntary and there were easy alternatives. But she said Ottawa is using COVID-19 as an opportunity to accelerate the transition.
“The federal government used a public health crisis to basically train people for a border modernization exercise that they wanted to do,” Wylie said, adding that modernization initiatives are okay as long as they are voluntary and that alternatives are available.
How has the app affected travel across the land border?
About a quarter of people entering Canada from the United States by car do not use ArriveCan in advance, according to Pierre St-Jacques, spokesperson for the Immigration and Customs Union.
At the Canada-U.S. land border, a one-time exemption is in place for travelers who “may not have been aware” of the rules, the Canada Border Services Agency has confirmed. Out of five million passes between May 24 and August 4, the exemption was used 308,800 times, the CBSA said in a statement.
But that’s only a temporary fix, St-Jacques said, as agents who already feel scattered due to understaffing find themselves acting as “IT consultants” and solving technical problems for travelers rather than doing what they are trained to do. “If the purpose of the app is to make cross-border travel more efficient or safer, well, it doesn’t work in its current version,” he said.
Border town mayors, border town chambers of commerce and even duty-free shops have publicly complained that they believe ArriveCan, along with other pandemic border restrictions, have deterred American tourists.
Why has ArriveCan become such a hot political topic?
Whether it’s because Canadians are annoyed by the added hassle, concerned about their privacy, sympathetic to border towns or simply fed up with the federal Liberals, the Conservatives have an audience for their calls to scrap ArriveCan.
Canadian actor darling Simu Liu joined the ‘scrap the app’ bandwagon, challenging his followers to say one nice thing about it in a tweet on Tuesday, then immediately saying, ‘I missed the challenge’ .
Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen said in a tweet on Tuesday that ArriveCan creates “unnecessary barriers” and “only serves to hurt Canada’s economy and tourism industry.”
Some voices went further, claiming the app was part of a larger effort to collect personal information and control the public. Conservative leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis called the set a “surveillance experiment”.
The Privacy Commissioner is also investigating a complaint about the app’s collection and use of personal data.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 16, 2022.
— With files by Sarah Ritchie