The federal government has funnelled more than $800 million into artificial intelligence technology over the past two years, according to data tabled in response to a parliamentary request a figure that spans everything from routine software subscriptions to landmark corporate investments worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The spending disclosure, prompted by a request from Conservative MP Jagsharan Singh Mahal, required all government departments, agencies, and Crown corporations to detail their AI-related contracts, licences, and subscriptions. What came back painted a sweeping picture of how deeply Ottawa has embedded AI tools into the machinery of government though the full picture remains incomplete, with several key security bodies choosing silence over transparency.
Two deals account for the lion’s share of the total. A $350 million public service contract with workforce management firm Dayforce brought in to finally replace the long-troubled Phoenix pay system and a $240 million investment in Canadian AI company Cohere together represent the bulk of the headline figure. Those agreements had been previously announced, but their inclusion in this consolidated tally underscores just how much of Ottawa’s AI appetite is being driven by a handful of high-value bets.
Beyond those anchor deals, the disclosure runs to hundreds of individual line items. The range is striking: a modest ChatGPT subscription billed at a few hundred dollars sits alongside multimillion-dollar contracts with various technology firms, illustrating how AI spending has filtered into departments at every level.
Public Services and Procurement Canada and Innovation Canada topped the departmental spending rankings, largely because of their roles in the Dayforce and Cohere deals respectively. Following them were the Department of National Defence at $83.7 million and the Canada Revenue Agency at $29.9 million suggesting that beyond headline investments, operational AI adoption is accelerating across government.
Not everyone came to the table. The Communications Security Establishment and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service both declined to share the requested information citing, implicitly, the sensitive nature of their mandates. The RCMP offered a different explanation, saying it simply didn’t maintain the relevant data in a centralised database.
The gaps matter. With three significant institutions sitting out, the $800 million figure is almost certainly an undercount. How much remains undisclosed is unknown and for now, likely to stay that way.
