Fewer than a fifth of international arrivals to three of Canada's busiest airports used the ArriveCAN app in the first month after it was made optional.
The app was launched during the pandemic as a communication and screening tool to ensure travellers arriving in Canada complied with pandemic border measures. It later became a way for travellers to show their vaccination status.
The app was made optional in October. Travellers no longer need to use it to report their vaccination information — but many of them can still use a feature of the app that allows them to fill out a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) declaration form before arriving at customs.
Few travellers used the advance declaration tool at the airports where it was available during the month of October.
CBSA provided CBC News with the number of air passengers who used the app in Montreal's Trudeau airport, Toronto's Pearson airport and Vancouver's international airport — the only airports where the advance declaration feature was available at the beginning of October. CBC cross-referenced those numbers with the number of international arrivals at those airports for the same month.
Out off the roughly 2.4 million arrivals at those airports, just over 320,000 travellers — roughly 13 per cent — used the app.
Despite the low use, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino's office defended the app, saying it remains a useful tool.
It's "an efficient and simple way to save time at the border by submitting a customs declaration in advance, and we invite all travelers to use it when returning to Canada," a spokesperson said in an email.
Filling out the form in advance could shave 40 seconds off each interaction at a customs booth, according to Transport Canada.
Monette Pasher, president of the Canadian Airports Council, said she's "pleased" that some travellers are still using the advance declaration feature. She suggested the low uptake is due to a "lack of knowledge" about how the app can expedite passengers' interactions with customs.
"It really is speeding up that passenger journey," Pasher said.
"I think when people see that it has that benefit, we're going to see more people use it."
But the president of the Customs and Immigration Union, which represents 10,000 customs officers, said too many travellers had difficulty using the app when it was mandatory and he's not surprised few are using it now.
"I think people really don't see the need for it. I think a lot of people still don't know it is even an option," union president Mark Weber said.
Fewer air passengers appear to be using the advance declaration feature since the app became optional. According to Pasher, roughly 30 per cent of arrivals used the feature when the app was mandatory.
Advance declaration expanding to more airports
The government is still making the option available at more airports. The feature was made available at airports in Winnipeg, Halifax and Quebec City in late October through early December and will be made available at the airports in Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa in the coming months, said CBSA.
For months, the Conservatives have been calling for the app to be scrapped entirely. CBC reached out to a number of Conservative MPs but none provided comment.
CBSA says millions of dollars have been or will be spent on the development of the ArriveCAN app; $54 million has been budgeted up to this coming March, the department said.
NDP transport critic Taylor Bachrach said the government needs to make a better case for the app if it plans to maintain it in its current state.
"I really think the government didn't get this one right. From the very beginning there have been challenges," he said.
"If the government hopes to continue down this path, I think they really need to make a stronger case for why this is necessary and why this is a place where the government should continue to invest public funds."