MPs looking to have ArriveCan contractor rebuked by Speaker of the House of Commons

MPs are looking to bring an ArriveCan contractor before the House of Commons to be formally rebuked by Speaker Greg Fergus.

On Friday, Fergus found there was a breach of MPs' privilege when GC Strategies' Kristian Firth declined to answer certain questions during a committee appearance earlier this month.

Following Fergus' ruling, Conservative MP Michael Barrett moved a motion calling on MPs to order that Firth appear before the bar of the House to be publicly admonished.

Barrett said that by refusing to answer MPs' questions, Firth was «obstructing the work of Parliament and its committees.»

«These are people who casually make a mockery of Canada's House of Commons,» Barrett said in reference to Firth and GC Strategies.

Firth appeared before the House government operations committee two weeks ago to testify about GC Strategies' involvement with ArriveCan.

An auditor general report found that the soaring cost of the 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 «heavily favoured» GC Strategies.

During his committee appearance, MPs repeatedly asked Firth which government officials he worked with to develop the criteria for that contract. Firth avoided those questions, citing an ongoing RCMP investigation into ArriveCan, even though he said he hadn't been contacted by the