Federal public health authorities awarded $52 million in sole-source contracts under emergency powers to private security companies to help enforce its COVID-19 quarantine orders, data provided by Procurement Canada reveals.
The four private contractors selected by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) ended up making 590,000 compliance verification visits from Jan. 29, 2021 to Sept. 15, 2022, according to spokesperson Tammy Jarbeau.
Out of those, 123,114 referrals were subsequently made to law enforcement for follow-up.
In total, PHAC says police made 146,878 in-person visits related to quarantine enforcement from March 2020 to Sept. 15, 2022.
Data posted on the PHAC website indicates that 18,562 fines were issued for non-compliance with the Quarantine Act, for reasons such as refusing to go to a designated quarantine facility (8,162), breaching quarantine (547), and refusing testing on arrival (1,273)….