diff --git a/pkg/controller/gc_controller.go b/pkg/controller/gc_controller.go
index 05c512130..8f3e7165e 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/gc_controller.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/gc_controller.go
@@ -99,7 +99,10 @@ func NewGCController(
 
 	backupInformer.Informer().AddEventHandler(
 		cache.ResourceEventHandlerFuncs{
-			UpdateFunc: c.handleFinalizer,
+			AddFunc: c.handleFinalizer,
+			UpdateFunc: func(_, upd interface{}) {
+				c.handleFinalizer(upd)
+			},
 		},
 	)
 
@@ -108,9 +111,9 @@ func NewGCController(
 
 // handleFinalizer runs garbage-collection on a backup that has the Ark GC
 // finalizer and a deletionTimestamp.
-func (c *gcController) handleFinalizer(_, newObj interface{}) {
+func (c *gcController) handleFinalizer(obj interface{}) {
 	var (
-		backup = newObj.(*api.Backup)
+		backup = obj.(*api.Backup)
 		log    = c.logger.WithField("backup", kube.NamespaceAndName(backup))
 	)
 
diff --git a/pkg/controller/gc_controller_test.go b/pkg/controller/gc_controller_test.go
index 69415d44e..dd26a0ea5 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/gc_controller_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/gc_controller_test.go
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ func TestHandleFinalizer(t *testing.T) {
 			}
 
 			// METHOD UNDER TEST
-			controller.handleFinalizer(nil, test.backup)
+			controller.handleFinalizer(test.backup)
 
 			// VERIFY
 			backupService.AssertExpectations(t)