Publicus Market Intelligence

Canadian Government IT Spending

Analysis of 26,050 IT procurement award notices totaling $36.9 billion across federal and all provincial/territorial channels. Covering digital transformation, software licenses, and hardware procurement from 2023 to present.

Total Market

$36.9B

26,050 award notices

Digital Transformation

$29.5B

19,291 contracts

Software Licenses

$2.3B

2,190 contracts

Hardware

$5.1B

4,569 contracts

Regions Covered

10

Federal + all provinces & territories

Unique Vendors

12,000+

Across all categories

Organizations

2,500+

Federal, provincial, municipal

A Note on Data Availability

This report is built exclusively from award notice data — records of contracts awarded, not payments made. Regional figures reflect what each jurisdiction publishes in its procurement portals, not total IT spending. The apparent size of each market is driven as much by portal coverage as by actual activity.

Strong coverage: Quebec (SEAO), British Columbia (BC Bid + BC Open Data), and Nova Scotia publish award notices with dollar values. Federal data via CanadaBuys is also comprehensive. Manitoba publishes contract values through its provincial portal.

Thinner coverage: Alberta's provincial award data currently lacks contract values in our pipeline — the Alberta figures here reflect only federal contracts delivered in the province, not provincial or municipal IT spending. Ontario's provincial portal publishes limited award data, so Ontario figures capture only a fraction of true IT activity. Saskatchewan and the territories have growing but still limited coverage. These gaps are being actively addressed.

Key Findings

Alberta emerges as the largest digital transformation market at $460M, driven by Calgary and provincial modernization programs. Quebec follows at $317M with heavy federal procurement concentration.

Microsoft dominates the platform landscape at approximately $1B in licensing nationally. The $250M Workday deal in BC signals accelerating SaaS adoption for core government functions.

The consulting market is led by Accenture ($135M in DT) and Deloitte ($97M), with clear regional specialization: Deloitte strongest in Alberta and Nova Scotia, Accenture dominant in Ontario, KPMG and EY leading in BC.

Hardware spending of $2.1B reflects ongoing data center modernization (Kyndryl in Alberta), health system equipment (BC), and defense procurement (Ontario/Quebec).

Digital Transformation

1,340 contracts valued at $1.2 billion across advisory services, custom solution development, and platform implementations. Platform implementations lead nationally, indicating preference for commercial platforms over bespoke development.

Alberta

253 contracts$459.7M

Largest DT market nationally. City of Calgary dominates at $142M with major municipal modernization. Alberta Investment Management at $76M, Alberta Electric System Operator at $59M, provincial Technology and Innovation ministry at $34M.

KTI Limited leads at $106M. Deloitte is #2 at $52M. CGI at $17M. Mix: 115 platform implementations, 71 advisory, 67 custom development.

View full Alberta breakdown →

Quebec

288 contracts$317.2M

Concentrated in federal entities. PSPC at $267M, Business Development Bank at $46M. Major Akkodis/Thales joint venture at $136M (defense/security transformation).

Accenture at $29M, KeyData at $14M, PwC and Deloitte tied at $13M. Custom development leads at 122 contracts.

View full Quebec breakdown →

Ontario

406 contracts$244.7M

Highest volume but lower average values. Export Development Canada at $87M, Shared Services Canada at $57M. Municipal presence: Hamilton $27M, Peel $13M, Mississauga $10M.

Accenture dominates at $90M (37% of region). Teksystems at $16M, Computronix at $15M for municipal systems.

View full Ontario breakdown →

Nova Scotia

87 contracts$55.2M

Marine Atlantic drives $35M in operational transformation. Provincial government $5M, Halifax Regional Municipality $4M.

Deloitte leads at $32M. Motorola Solutions at $4M for mission-critical communications.

View full Nova Scotia breakdown →

British Columbia

87 contracts$53.3M

Ministry of Citizens' Services at $22M, Liquor Distribution Branch at $10M. Big Four dominated: KPMG $15M, EY $10M, PwC $4M.

Advisory-heavy market. 41 platform implementations, 24 advisory, 22 custom.

View full British Columbia breakdown →

DT Competitive Landscape

#1Accenture$135M
#2Deloitte$97M
#3CGI$22M
#4EY$21M
#5KPMG$20M
#6Teksystems$19M
#7PwC$17M
#8MNP Digital$4M

Platform Landscape

Microsoft ecosystem (Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Azure) leads enterprise platform adoption. SAP maintains position in larger ERP deployments across provincial health and Crown corporations.

Salesforce growing in citizen service delivery — permitting, licensing, case management. ServiceNow adoption for ITSM and workflow automation. Oracle maintaining legacy database and ERP position.

Software Licenses & Subscriptions

5,446 contracts totaling $2.6 billion. The foundational technology layer — enterprise platforms, productivity suites, and cloud subscriptions. Microsoft dominates at approximately $1B nationally.

British Columbia

277 contracts$1.2B

Provincial health authorities drive massive licensing. Microsoft Canada at $800M for cloud and productivity. Workday at $250M for HCM platform across the health system. Single largest provincial licensing market.

View full British Columbia breakdown →

Quebec

4,099 contracts$712M

Highest volume nationally. PSPC at $329M, BDC at $293M. Microsoft at $82M combined, Esri at $40M for GIS. Heavy federal procurement concentration.

View full Quebec breakdown →

Alberta

279 contracts$333M

Centralized through Technology and Innovation at $182M. Microsoft $60M, IBM $81M (mainframe/middleware). VMware $16M for virtualization. Compugen $30M as reseller.

View full Alberta breakdown →

Ontario

522 contracts$289M

Shared Services Canada at $91M. Multi-cloud arrangement (AWS, IBM, Google, Microsoft, Oracle) at $38M — government-wide cloud brokerage. Accenture at $37M for licensed solutions.

View full Ontario breakdown →

Software Trends

Cloud migration accelerating with Microsoft Azure and M365 dominant. Workday's $250M BC deal signals SaaS adoption for core government functions. Multi-cloud strategies emerging federally. Esri dominates geospatial across all regions.

Hardware & Infrastructure

3,365 contracts valued at $2.1 billion. Endpoints, data centers, network equipment, and specialized operational technology.

Ontario

1,088 contracts$850M

PSPC at $435M, Public Works at $215M, SSC at $110M. U.S. Navy at $170M for defense hardware. Felix Technology $47M, L-3 Communications $37M in defense electronics.

View full Ontario breakdown →

British Columbia

576 contracts$658M

Health authorities at $255M combined. BC Hydro $107M for utility infrastructure. CDW Canada $49M as distributor. Siemens Healthcare $63M for medical imaging.

View full British Columbia breakdown →

Quebec

891 contracts$306M

PSPC at $132M. Thales Canada $63M, Lockheed Martin $30M. Defense procurement dominates.

View full Quebec breakdown →

Alberta

307 contracts$233M

Technology and Innovation at $116M centralized. Kyndryl Canada $64M for data center modernization (IBM infrastructure spinoff).

View full Alberta breakdown →

Hardware Trends

Data center modernization drives Alberta spending (Kyndryl). Healthcare imaging dominates BC. Defense hardware flows through Ontario and Quebec federal channels. Education endpoint refresh in Nova Scotia.

Publicus Market Intelligence

Data from CanadaBuys, Bids&Tenders, and provincial procurement portals. January 2023 — March 2026.