Tech and medical experts, as well as travelers, continue to call for the ArriveCan app to be scrapped, even after the federal government fixed a technical glitch that required some users to quarantine themselves unnecessarily.
Even though the problem was fixed on Wednesday, social media platforms are full of messages from passengers complaining that the app is not user-friendly overall.
The union representing border services officers estimates that around 30% of people crossing the border have not completed their document in the app, which is prolonging processing times for travelers during what turns out to be a chaotic travel season.
“We’re so understaffed and spending so much time managing this application that we really don’t have time to do our real work,” Mark Weber, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, noted during an interview. a meeting.
The app has also lost its usefulness as a way to protect public health, said Dr. Andrew Morris, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Toronto.
“I really have no idea why we should continue to use it the way we do now. It seems to me like a lot of effort, work and, to be honest, inconvenience for many people, in exchange for very little benefit,” he observed in an interview.
Morris also questioned the value of confirming participants are vaccinated “when we’re not even really making sure their vaccinations are up to date, when the federal definition of being fully vaccinated doesn’t include three vaccines or a vaccine in the last, say, five or six months. »
Launched in November 2020, the ArriveCan app aimed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring arrivals were doubly vaccinated and facilitate contact tracing, with the potential bonus of faster processing at the border .
The app was initially only mandatory for air travelers entering Canada, but became a requirement for all border crossings in February 2021. Canadian and international travelers must still submit information, including proof of vaccinations, travel dates and contact details within 72 hours of arrival in the country.
The government announced last month that the app would be mandatory until at least September 30, and Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino said it would survive the pandemic as part of a modernization strategy. aimed at reducing bottlenecks at borders.
Meanwhile, random testing, which is communicated through emails associated with ArriveCan users, resumed at the country’s four largest airports last Tuesday, just five weeks after being paused on 11 June.
Controversial data collection
Bianca Wylie, technology expert and partner at Digital Public, says a lack of oversight and accountability plagues the app — which contains sensitive information — and says using the ArriveCan platform should be voluntary.
“You’re telling people you have to use this app, when we know there are people out there who aren’t comfortable with an app like this and may not have the required technology “, she said in an interview.
” The code [de l’application] is closed. We don’t know how it works. There’s no advisory board, there’s no oversight […] there was no audit. »
The Quarantine Act authorizes the collection of data, but nowhere specifies the use of any particular technology, Ms Wylie said.
The app was developed by the Canada Border Services Agency and five companies that did not have to participate in a tendering process due to pre-existing contracts with the government.
The federal agency said it spent $24.7 million to develop and maintain ArriveCan, in addition to $2.2 million for advertising.
Following a recent update, passengers arriving at Pearson and Vancouver airport can now complete their customs declaration forms before landing in Canada — Montreal will do the same from Thursday — as part of the plan of Mr. Mendicino aimed at “modernizing our border” and reducing queues at the border.
According to Transport Canada, travelers who pass through the hundreds of automated kiosks in the customs areas of the four largest airports and who use the app save 40 seconds on a two-minute interaction.
“With the thousands of travelers passing through Toronto Pearson International Airport using the optional CBSA Advance Declaration feature in ArriveCAN, this can save hours of processing each day,” said assured the ministry in a statement earlier this month.
ArriveCan is successfully used by more than 99% of international air passengers and 89% of ground travelers, according to the Department of Public Safety.
But Mark Weber, who heads the union representing border services officers, says these are “success rates after helping the traveler complete it — or completing it for the traveler.”