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

An ArriveCan contractor who declined to answer questions during a committee appearance last month will face further questioning by MPs when he appears in front of the House of Commons this afternoon — an extremely rare measure that hasn't happened since 1913.

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.

A public rebuke from the Speaker is itself a rare measure that has only been used a handful of times in the past century. But it is even more rare for an individual to face questions from the House.

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

No one has been questioned «before the bar» — a reference to a brass rail in the House that's meant to keep strangers from entering the chamber — since 1913.

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.

That same report found that GC Strategies was involved in developing requirements that were later used for an ArriveCan contract. That contract — valued at $25 million — was later awarded to GC Strategies, the report says.

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