A Globe and Mail analysis of federal contracts related to the ArriveCan app found total spending on it is on pace to exceed $54-million this year, which is more than double what the government recently said was spent.

Further, the review found that the Ottawa-area company that received the most federal work on the app – GCstrategies – has fewer than five employees. The company told The Globe it is working with more than a dozen government departments, and delivers on its contracts through the use of more than 75 subcontractors. However, the company and the government say the identities of subcontractors cannot be revealed because of confidentiality provisions in federal procurement rules.

The company also worked on the COVID Alert app, which was meant to assist with contact tracing, but has been shut down. That app had a reported price tag of $20-million.

ArriveCan was designed as a tool for travellers to upload their mandatory health information in relation to COVID-19 measures. It was expanded to allow users to answer customs and immigration questions up to 72 hours before flying into Canada.

The US and its allies would destroy Russia’s troops and equipment in Ukraine – as well as sink its Black Sea fleet – if Russian president Vladimir Putin uses nuclear weapons in the country, former CIA director and retired four-star army general David Petraeus warned on Sunday.

Petreaus said that he had not spoken to national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the likely US response to nuclear escalation from Russia, which administration officials have said has been repeatedly communicated to Moscow.

He told ABC News: “Just to give you a hypothetical, we would respond by leading a Nato – a collective – effort that would take out every Russian conventional force that we can see and identify on the battlefield in Ukraine and also in Crimea and every ship in the Black Sea.”

The warning comes days after Putin expressed views that many have interpreted as a threat of a larger war between Russia and the west.

Asked if the use of nuclear weapons by Russia in Ukraine would bring America and Nato into the war, Petreaus said that it would not be a situation triggering the alliance’s Article 5, which calls for a collective defense. That is because Ukraine is not part of Nato – nonetheless, a “US and Nato response” would be in order, Petreaus said.