Federal government spent more than $800M on AI agreements over 3 years

OTTAWA — Ottawa has spent more than $800 million on artificial intelligence technology since 2023, according to data provided by the federal government.

The sum includes two previously announced deals: a $350 million public service contract with Dayforce to replace the troubled Phoenix pay system and a $240 million investment in the AI company Cohere.

It also includes hundreds of entries that range from a few hundred dollars for a ChatGPT subscription to multimillion-dollar contracts with various companies.

A spokesperson for Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said in a statement that the $800 million figure “should not be read as one single total for government purchases of AI tools.”

“It combines very different categories of spending: departments using AI-enabled tools and cloud services, broader digital modernization projects where AI may be one component, and separate programs that support Canadian AI companies, compute capacity and innovation. Those are different things, and that context matters,” the statement said.

Conservative MP Jagsharan Singh Mahal had asked all government departments, agencies and Crown corporations to provide information about their AI-related contracts and subscriptions.

He also asked for “pilot projects, memoranda of understanding, task authorizations, statements of work, licences or other arrangements related to artificial intelligence technologies.”

Not all government departments and agencies complied with the request, meaning the total spending is higher than the amount provided in the government’s response.

Mahal asked for data for the time period from Jan. 1, 2023 to March 9, 2026. The Canadian Press compiled the responses — some of which were listed in U.S. dollars and some of which were in monthly subscriptions — to arrive at a total of roughly $831 million for those departments and agencies that did provide information.

Because of the Dayforce and Cohere agreements, Public Services and Procurement Canada and Innovation Canada were the top spending departments, followed by National Defence at $83.7 million and the Canada Revenue Agency at $29.9 million. Veterans Affairs Canada spent $25.1 million.

The Canada Revenue Agency signed what it called a $17.5 million contract with Sailpoint Technologies for “machine learning-based analytics” to be used for applications such as automatically flagging “high-risk users.”

The National Defence spending includes a $6.3-million deal with Ecopia Incorporated for “mapping software that identifies land features and objects from satellite imagery.”

Nearly all of Veterans Affairs’ spending went toward an AI tool that processes veterans’ medical records. The department said the tool generates “claim summaries, reducing document page volume for disability adjudicators.”

The examples of AI services reported by the government include consumer products like AI captioning and the transcription tool Wordly. Others were large contracts with big AI companies, such as a $12.1 million agreement the Bank of Canada signed with Microsoft to implement its M365 Copilot.

Some of the deals were more targeted. Fisheries and Oceans Canada spent $1.27 million on an AI solution called AI.Fish, which it described as customized “artificial intelligence‑assisted solutions for fishery management including electronic monitoring and ghost-gear detection.”

National Defence had the highest number of contracts, at 104. That was followed by National Research Council Canada, which had 61 contracts, and Innovation Canada with 38.

Intelligence agencies CSE and CSIS said they do not share details about activities beyond what is already publicly available. CSE cited national security while CSIS pointed to its “mandate and specific operational requirements.”

CBC/Radio-Canada said information about the value of its AI contracts was protected under the Access to Information Act unless the contract was subject to a public tender.

Other departments and agencies said it was not possible to provide the information because they don’t track it in a centralized database. Those departments and agencies included the RCMP, Natural Resources Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2026.

— With files from Nick Murray