Did Canada pay too much for the controversial ArriveCan app? Shocked by the spending of tens of millions of federal dollars, two tech companies reproduced the platform in a weekend to demonstrate that it could be developed quickly and inexpensively.
The hackathon launched by Torontonians TribalScale and Lazer Technologies was completed over the Thanksgiving weekend. While the first brought together several members of its team to complete the application in two days, the second relied on only one of its employees.
Lazer Technologies has released a user video of its application and released its source code. In this record time, the company specifies that the tool does not include all the features of ArriveCan (French translation, passport scanning or accessibility functions). TribalScale has also released a demonstration video of its platform.
Although Lazer Technologies co-founder Zain Manji acknowledges the challenges of producing a secure platform for use at Canadian borders, he says the “$54 million” bill seems exaggerated.
the Globe and Mail revealed last week that spending on building and maintaining ArriveCan is expected to top $54 million this year, more than double the government announced this summer. The digital platform, the use of which has been optional since 1er October, has caused many headaches for travelers arriving in Canada, including imposing an unnecessary quarantine.
Government technologies to review?
With the rapid creation of these applications, tech companies hope that this will be an opportunity to question the effectiveness of digital resources and partners solicited by the government. They also want technological tools “at a more reasonable cost for taxpayers”.
TribalScale took advantage of this digital explosion to announce the launch of a Canadian Technology Consortium. This group will offer free advice “at all levels of the Canadian government, across the country, on all current or future digital issues”, explained in a press release its CEO, Sheetal Jaitly. The first meeting of this consortium will take place on Friday.