Questions and responses 45th Parliament, 1st session May 26, 2025, to present

With regard to all diversity, equity, and inclusion-related programs, positions, training, contracts, initiatives, grants, and policies across all departments and agencies since January 1, 2016: (a) what is the total amount spent on diversity, equity and inclusion-related programs, broken down by year, and by department or agency; (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by spending category, including (i) salaries and benefits, (ii) external consultants, (iii) training or workshop providers, (iv) grants, (v) communications and branding, (vi) travel and hospitality, (vii) other expenditures; (c) how many full-time equivalents are employed in diversity, equity and inclusion-related roles, broken down by year, by department or agency, and by job title; (d) what are the details of all contracts issued for diversity, equity and inclusion-related services, including, for each, the (i) vendor, (ii) contract value, (iii) date, (iv) description of the goods or services, (v) details on whether the contract was competitive or sole-sourced; (e) what performance metrics, if any, are used to evaluate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and what were the outcomes of those evaluations; and (f) who are the five most senior officials in each department and agency responsible for diversity, equity and inclusion implementation, and what are the details of each, including their (i) title, (ii) diversity, equity and inclusion-related responsibilities, (iii) Treasury Board classification level (EX-01, AS-07, etc.), and associated salary range?

With regard to preparations made by the government for witnesses representing any department, agency or Crown corporation, including ministers, who appeared or were scheduled to appear before parliamentary committees, since November 1, 2023: (a) were any off-site meetings or retreats held for the purpose of committee preparations in any way; (b) if the answer to (a) is affirmative, what are the details, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) location, (iii) list of attendees, (iv) scheduled date and subject of the related committee meeting, (v) name of the related committee; (c) what were the expenditures related to each such meeting or retreat, in total, and broken down by item; (d) what are the details of any contracts signed in relation to off-site meetings, retreats or preparations, including any contracts with consultants who were involved with the preparations in any way, and including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) vendor, (iii) amount, (iv) description of the goods or services, (v) location, if applicable, (vi) date and name of the related committee meeting or scheduled committee meeting; (e) what are the details of any contracts signed in relation to on-site meetings, retreats or preparations, including any contracts with consultants who were involved with the preparations in any way, and including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) vendor, (iii) amount, (iv) description of the goods or services, (v) location, if applicable, (vi) date and name of the related committee meeting or scheduled committee meeting; and (f) are there any other contracts related to committee preparation not covered by (d) or (e), and, if so, what are the details of each, including the (i) date, (ii) vendor, (iii) amount, (iv) description of the goods or services, (v) location?

With regard to the announcement from the Prime Minister on September 5, 2025, of a Buy Canadian Policy: (a) which federal departments, agencies, and Crown corporations currently have a buy Canadian directive in place, and for those that do, what is the policy; (b) what specific directives has each department, agency, and Crown corporation implemented in relation to the Buy Canadian Policy and what was the implementation date of each directive; (c) what costs have been incurred related to the implementation and promotion of each of the policies and directives in (a) and (b), in total and broken down by type of expense; and (d) how many employees or full-time equivalents in each department, agency, and Crown corporation are working on developing or implementing the Buy Canadian Policy?

With regard to preparations made by the Privy Council Office for witnesses representing any department, agency or Crown corporation, including ministers and candidates for officers of parliament, who appeared or were scheduled to appear before parliamentary committees in either the House or the Senate, since January 1, 2026: (a) were any off-site meetings or retreats held for the purpose of committee preparations in any way; (b) if the answer to (a) is affirmative, what are the details, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) location, (iii) list of attendees, (iv) scheduled date and subject of the related committee meeting, (v) name of the related committee; (c) what were the expenditures related to each such meeting or retreat, in total, and broken down by item; (d) what are the details of any contracts signed in relation to off-site meetings, retreats or preparations, including any contracts with consultants who were involved with the preparations in any way, and including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) vendor, (iii) amount, (iv) description of the goods or services, (v) location, if applicable, (vi) date and name of the related committee meeting or scheduled committee meeting; (e) what are the details of any contracts signed in relation to on-site meetings, retreats or preparations, including any contracts with consultants who were involved with the preparations in any way, and including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) vendor, (iii) amount, (iv) description of the goods or services, (v) location, if applicable, (vi) date and name of the related committee meeting or scheduled committee meeting; and (f) are there any other contracts related to committee preparation not covered by (d) or (e), and, if so, what are the details of each, including the (i) date, (ii) vendor, (iii) amount, (iv) description of the goods or services, (v) location?

With regard to record-keeping and retention policies across all federal departments, agencies, and Crown corporations: (a) what are the current policies governing the retention and deletion of government records, including emails, text messages, instant messages, electronic documents, and other official communications for all departments, agencies, and Crown corporations; (b) who is responsible for setting, approving, and enforcing these retention policies in each department, agency, or Crown corporation; (c) what are the required retention periods for each category of record; and (d) what oversight or compliance mechanisms are in place to ensure that records are retained in accordance with these policies?

With regard to the removal of regulations within the government since January 1, 2022: (a) how many regulations have been repealed, eliminated, replaced, or otherwise removed, broken down by department, agency, and Crown corporation; (b) what was the corresponding regulation requiring the one-for-one rule, including, for each, the (i) title of the repealed regulation, (ii) title of the new or amended regulation, (iii) department, agency or Crown corporation responsible, (iv) date each change came into force; and (c) for each regulation repealed, eliminated, or amended, what impact did the change have on staffing levels, including the number of regulatory or public service positions reduced, eliminated, or reassigned, broken down by department, agency, and Crown corporation?

With regard to federal digital identification initiatives: (a) which departments are currently developing or testing any form of digital identification credential; (b) what interdepartmental coordination mechanisms exist to manage citizen data; (c) has the government undertaken any review regarding the compatibility of digital identification frameworks with section 7 and section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and, if so, what are the details of that review; and (d) what safeguards exist to prevent a citizen’s access to digital ID-linked services from being suspended or restricted due to non-compliance with government regulations or mandates (related to health, environment, taxation, or other), and, if no safeguards exist, why not?

With regard to all public opinion research and surveys conducted or commissioned by government departments or agencies, since January 1, 2024: (a) what are the details of each public opinion research or survey, including, for each, the (i) title or subject, (ii) purpose, (iii) date, (iv) vendor who conducted the research or survey, (v) contract value, (vi) methodology used, (vii) questions asked and the associated results or findings; (b) what were the total expenditures on public opinion research and surveys in (i) 2024, (ii) 2025 to date; and (c) of the surveys in (a), are the results publicly available, and, if so, what is the website link where each is located?

With regard to government funding for health organizations, since January 1, 2016, and broken down by year and by department or agency that provided the funding: (a) what was the total amount provided in government grants, contributions, and funding agreements for the (i) Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, (ii) Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, (iii) Canadian Institute for Health Information, (iv) Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, (v) Canadian Patient Safety Institute, (vi) Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, (vii) Mental Health Commission of Canada; and (b) what are the details of all the grants, contributions, or other funding agreements, such as loans or contracts with any of the organizations in (a), including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) amount, (iii) type of contribution (loan, non-repayable grant, etc.), (iv) repayment terms, if applicable, and how much has been repaid to date, (v) purpose?

With regard to government measures taken in order to protect Canadians from online harms or misinformation: (a) which departments and agencies are responsible for implementing such measures; (b) which measures is each department or agency responsible for implementing; (c) what are the details of each measure, including, for each, the (i) project description and purpose, (ii) number of officials or full-time equivalents assigned to work on it, (iii) projected implementation date; and (d) what is the estimated budget for (i) implementing, (ii) maintaining, each measure?

With regard to access to information and privacy coordinators and the concerns raised by the Information Commissioner that government departments are wrongly withholding records, including statistics, on the grounds that they are exempt from disclosure because they count as advice to ministers: (a) what is each government institution doing, if anything, to ensure that they are not abusing this exemption when processing requests; (b) since 2016, has the government disciplined any institution's access to information and privacy coordinators or employees for abusing this exemption or otherwise wrongfully withholding information, and, if so, what are the details, including the dates and incident summaries, of each instance; and (c) broken down by each institution governed by the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, will the institutions abide by the Information Commissioner's recommendations and not abuse the advice to ministers exemption, beginning immediately, and, if not, why not?

With regard to diversity, equity and inclusion in the public service, broken down by department or agency: (a) how many and what percentage of job postings required self-identification of race or gender, broken down by year for each of the past three years; (b) how many and what percentage of job postings were only available or gave preference to those who identified as a member of an employment equity designated group; (c) how many employees were hired based, in whole or in part, on being a member of a designated group under the Employment Equity Act; (d) how many instances have occurred where the most qualified candidate, excluding any diversity, equity and inclusion qualification requirements, was not hired as a result of not being a member of a preferred equity group; and (e) what is each department and agency's requirements or policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion hiring, including any targets for the number or percentages of job postings or hirings for equity groups?

With regard to classified or protected documents, since January 1, 2022, broken down by minister, department or agency, and by year: (a) how many instances have occurred where it was discovered that classified or protected documents were left or stored in a manner which did not meet the requirements of the security level of the documents; (b) how many of these instances occurred in the (i) offices of ministers or ministerial exempt staff, including those of the Prime Minister, (ii) deputy minister's office (or equivalent), broken down by ministerial office?

With regard to the government's procurement and use of artificial intelligence systems, including large language models and generative artificial intelligence tools, since January 1, 2023: (a) what requirements, if any, has the government established regarding (i) Canadian data residency, (ii) Canadian ownership or control of cloud infrastructure, (iii) retention of prompts and outputs, (iv) secondary use of government data by vendors, (v) subcontracting to non-Canadian entities; (b) what are the details of each agreement or contract signed by government departments or agencies related to the use of artificial intelligence systems, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) vendor, (iii) value, (iv) description of the goods or services provided, (v) start and end dates of services, (vi) manner in which the contract was awarded (sole-sourced or competitive bid); (c) for each contract or arrangement in (b), did the government determine whether any government data, prompts, outputs or metadata could be stored, accessed or processed outside of Canada; (d) for each contract arrangement in (c) to which the answer is affirmative, what are the details, including, for each, the (i) summary of the situation, (ii) jurisdiction, (iii) type of data, (iv) mitigation measures; (e) what direction has Shared Services Canada issued concerning sovereign cloud hosting services for artificial intelligence workloads; and (f) what departments or agencies have received exemptions, waivers or special approvals to use non-sovereign artificial intelligence or cloud services, and what are the details of each?

With regard to government and ministerial responses to correspondence and requests from Members of Parliament, broken down by minister, department or agency: (a) what instructions and directives have been given to public servants related to how they respond to direct inquiries or requests for information from Members of Parliament; (b) excluding the initial receipt or acknowledgement, what is the service standard or expected timeline by which members can expect a complete response to their request; (c) since January 1, 2025, how many pieces of correspondence or requests have been received from Members of Parliament, in total and broken down by party; (d) what was the average time it took to provide a complete response, overall and broken down by party; and (e) as of March 23, 2026, how many items were still awaiting a complete response, in total, and broken down by party?

With regard to government expenditures on hospitality (Treasury Board Object Code 0822 or equivalent), broken down by department or agency, and by fiscal year since 2021: (a) what was the total amount spent on hospitality; and (b) of the expenditures in (a), what value was spent (i) in Canada, (ii) outside of Canada, in total and broken down by country?

With regard to the Policy on Prioritizing Canadian Materials in Federal Procurement, sections 5 and 7, Policy Requirements, and Monitoring and Reporting: (a) which departments, agencies and Crown corporations will be responsible for developing their own record-keeping, monitoring and oversight practices to ensure compliance with this policy, and how long will these records be kept; (b) for the purposes of auditing the accuracy of these records, how many contracts annually will be subject to audits, and what are the reporting requirements for each department, agency or Crown corporation; and (c) how many employees or full-time equivalents will be assigned to the implementation of (a) and (b)?

With regard to incidents involving Microsoft's cloud services referenced in the "National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026" and, specifically, the compromise of Microsoft Exchange Online during the summer of 2023, the breach of Microsoft's cloud-based enterprise service by Russian state-sponsored actors in January 2024, and the Azure disruption in July 2024: (a) which government departments or agencies were impacted by the compromise of Microsoft Exchange Online in the summer of 2023; (b) which government departments or agencies were impacted by Russian state-sponsored actors accessing Microsoft's corporate email accounts in January 2024; (c) which government departments or agencies were impacted by the Microsoft Azure cloud service disruption in July 2024; and (d) for the incidents in (a), (b), and (c), what was the (i) nature, (ii) date, (iii) duration, of the impact on government operations?

With regard to contracts, subscriptions, pilot projects, memoranda of understanding, task authorizations, statements of work, licences or other arrangements related to artificial intelligence technologies, including generative artificial intelligence, entered into by the government since January 1, 2023, and broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation or other government entity: (a) what are the details of each arrangement, including (i) the vendor or counterparty, (ii) the date of signature, (iii) the start and end date, (iv) the total current value, (v) the original value, (vi) the procurement method (competitively awarded, sole-sourced or entered into through a standing offer or supply arrangement), (vii) a description of the goods or services provided, (viii) the file or contract number, (ix) whether the arrangement remains active; (b) for each arrangement in (a), what specific artificial intelligence systems, models, applications or services were procured, licensed, tested or evaluated; (c) for each arrangement in (a), what was the intended use case, including whether it was for (i) client-facing service delivery, (ii) internal drafting or summarization, (iii) search or retrieval, (iv) fraud detection, (v) call centre or chatbot functions, (vi) classification, triage or decision support; (d) for each arrangement in (a), what privacy, security, legal or algorithmic impact assessments were completed before deployment or testing; and (e) for each arrangement in (a), was any government data input into a third-party model or system, and, if so, what classes of data were involved?

With regard to all agreements, including contracts, grants, contributions, memorandums of understandings and any other arrangement between the government and Cohere Inc., since January 1, 2024, and broken down by department or agency: (a) what are the details of each agreement, including the (i) date, (ii) value, (iii) summary of the terms, (iv) type of agreement, (v) duration, (vi) file number; (b) what departments or agencies have tested, evaluated or used any Cohere model, product, Application Programming Interface, platform or service, and what are the details of each instance, including whether the tool was used for (i) summarization, (ii) transcription, (iii) search, (iv) drafting, (v) chatbots, (vi) internal productivity; (c) for each arrangement in (a) or test in (b), what privacy, security, sovereignty, data residency, legal or conflict-of-interest reviews were completed; and (d) did any department or agency compare Cohere against alternative Canadian or non-Canadian vendors, and, if so, what were the results of those comparisons?