⁠Carney Promised ‘Buy Canadian’—Star Finds $7.8B in Federal Contracts Went to U.S.-Controlled Firms

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Prime Minister Mark Carney has made “Buy Canadian” a central part of Ottawa’s response to a more hostile global trade environment, arguing that government purchasing should strengthen domestic industries rather than deepen Canada’s dependence on foreign suppliers. New procurement analysis, however, shows just how complicated that goal can become once corporate ownership is examined.

A Toronto Star analysis estimates that $7.8 billion in federal contracts awarded during Carney’s first 16 months in office went to corporations ultimately controlled from the United States. The finding does not mean $7.8 billion was simply shipped south of the border. Many of those companies have Canadian subsidiaries, Canadian employees and substantial operations here. But it raises a bigger question: when Ottawa promises to “buy Canadian,” should the nationality of the corporate parent matter as much as where the work is actually performed?

The $7.8-Billion Finding Changes When Corporate Ownership Is Traced

At first glance, Ottawa’s procurement numbers look considerably more Canadian than the headline suggests. According to the federal contract data examined by the Star, approximately $25 billion in contracts were awarded from the time Carney became prime minister in March 2025 through the end of July 2026. About $22.4 billion of that total was recorded as going to Canadian companies, while businesses listed as being in the United States received roughly $1.2 billion.

The Star went further than the address attached to each supplier. It cross-referenced contractors with Statistics Canada’s Inter-corporate Ownership information and reviewed corporate filings and other public records to identify where companies were ultimately controlled. Using that approach, the newspaper estimated that U.S.-controlled corporations received about $7.8 billion, while Canadian-controlled companies received approximately $14.9 billion. The difference is significant because a Canadian-incorporated subsidiary of an American multinational can appear as a Canadian supplier in government procurement records even though its ultimate parent company is based in the United States.

A Company Can Be American-Controlled and Still Qualify as a Canadian Supplier

That apparent contradiction is built into the federal government’s own definition. Under Ottawa’s Buy Canadian rules, a supplier can qualify as Canadian when it maintains a permanent place of business in Canada, is registered and files taxes here, maintains a Canadian address and employs personnel or conducts day-to-day business activity in the country. The rules also seek to prevent contractors from shifting so much work abroad that little meaningful Canadian activity remains.

What the definition does not require is Canadian ultimate ownership. That distinction helps explain why government procurement statistics and an ownership-based analysis can produce very different pictures. Microsoft Canada, IBM Canada or a Canadian subsidiary of a major U.S. defence contractor can employ Canadians, pay Canadian taxes and perform substantial work domestically while ultimately belonging to an American corporate group. Ottawa’s framework is therefore designed primarily around economic activity and Canadian value-added rather than the passport of the ultimate shareholder. The Star’s analysis measures a different question: who ultimately controls the corporation receiving the contract?

Carney’s Promise Came Months Before the New Rules Actually Took Effect

Timing also matters when assessing whether the $7.8-billion figure represents a failure of the Buy Canadian promise. Carney took office in March 2025, but the government did not formally announce the comprehensive new procurement initiative until September 5, 2025. At the time, Carney argued that Canada had spent too many years purchasing from foreign suppliers for short-term savings and said Ottawa would move from “best efforts” toward a clear obligation to support Canadian industry.

The core Buy Canadian procurement framework did not take effect until December 16, 2025. That means a substantial portion of the Star’s March 2025-to-July 2026 measurement period occurred before the new rules existed. Even once implemented, the strategic procurement policy initially applied only to eligible procurements valued at $25 million or more. The threshold was lowered to $5 million on June 15, 2026. Comparing every contract awarded since Carney became prime minister with a policy introduced nine months later therefore requires some caution.

The Policy Gives Canadian Bidders an Advantage Rather Than Automatically Excluding Foreign Firms

Ottawa’s current system is more sophisticated than a requirement to choose a Canadian company every time one submits a bid. For strategic procurements covered by the policy, an eligible Canadian supplier receives a notional 10 per cent reduction in the value of its financial proposal for evaluation purposes. A Canadian company bidding $100 million, for example, can effectively be evaluated as though its financial proposal were $90 million, even though the actual contract price would remain unchanged.

Canadian content receives a separate advantage. The government’s standard methodology can allocate 25 per cent of a bid’s evaluation score to Canadian value-added, rewarding manufacturing, services and other eligible economic activity taking place domestically. International obligations still matter as well. Where trade agreements apply, suppliers from applicable trading partners may remain eligible to compete. There are also exceptions for circumstances such as sensitive operations and certain other procurements. The result is a domestic-preference framework, not a blanket prohibition against foreign-controlled businesses.

Technology Is One of Ottawa’s Hardest Dependencies to Unwind

Technology illustrates why changing procurement patterns cannot happen overnight. Shared Services Canada says it awards more than $3.7 billion in information-technology procurement annually, covering everything from data centres and networking to cybersecurity, software and cloud computing. Many departments have built critical systems around global platforms supplied by companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, Oracle and Salesforce.

An earlier federal evaluation of government cloud consumption found Microsoft Azure was by far the most heavily used provider from fiscal 2019-20 through 2022-23. Roughly $204 million was spent through Microsoft over that period, compared with about $49.5 million for Amazon Web Services and $44.4 million for Salesforce. More recent government briefing material explicitly acknowledges that cloud computing is dominated by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, creating challenges for technological and operational sovereignty. Replacing such platforms can involve rewriting applications, migrating enormous quantities of data, retraining employees and accepting transition risks. “Buy Canadian” is therefore partly an industrial-capacity challenge rather than simply a purchasing instruction.

Defence Shows Why U.S. Ownership Does Not Always Mean the Money Leaves Canada

Defence procurement creates an even more complicated picture. General Dynamics Land Systems–Canada is ultimately part of U.S.-based General Dynamics, yet its major Canadian operations are centred in London, Ontario. In July 2026, the company announced a nearly $2-billion award connected with an additional 190 Armoured Combat Support Vehicles for Canada and 35 vehicles intended for Ukraine. The company says its London operation employs about 1,700 people and is supported by more than 600 suppliers across Canada.

L3Harris presents a similar case. The American defence group says it employs more than 1,100 people at 13 Canadian operating centres supporting military aircraft and other programs, including major work in Mirabel, Quebec. An ownership-based database can reasonably classify both groups as U.S.-controlled. Economically, however, a contract that keeps an Ontario manufacturing line running and purchases components from Canadian suppliers is very different from purchasing a finished product manufactured entirely abroad. That distinction is one reason Canadian value-added is becoming increasingly important in procurement debates.

Ottawa Can Point to Early Buy Canadian Results, but the Transition Is Still Small Compared With Federal Purchasing

The federal government has begun publishing evidence that the new system is affecting procurement decisions. The 2026 Spring Economic Update reported that, by mid-April, the Buy Canadian policy had already been applied to solicitations valued at approximately $3.6 billion, with about $527.9 million in contracts awarded under the framework. The government cited purchases ranging from vaccines to defence communications and facility-management services.

By June 25, Public Services and Procurement Canada reported that 14 contracts worth a combined $726.4 million had been awarded under the Buy Canadian policy. Ottawa also widened the policy’s reach in June by lowering the threshold for strategic procurements from $25 million to $5 million, saying that approximately five times as many federal procurements would consequently become subject to Canadian-preference measures. Those numbers demonstrate that implementation is progressing, but they also underline the scale of the challenge. Federal contracting stretches across software, weapons, construction, professional services, medical products and thousands of specialized items for which domestic production capacity varies enormously.

The Bigger Question Is What Ottawa Should Count as Truly Canadian

The Star’s findings expose a measurement problem that could become more politically important than the $7.8-billion headline itself. Ottawa can legitimately argue that a foreign-controlled subsidiary employing hundreds of Canadians and manufacturing products domestically creates Canadian economic value. Critics can just as legitimately ask how much profit, intellectual property and strategic corporate control ultimately remains outside the country. Parliamentarians have already raised questions about how Ottawa verifies Canadian content, subcontracting practices and whether profits from Canadian resources flow to non-Canadian parent companies.

A stronger accountability system could publish several measures simultaneously: the supplier’s country of residence, its ultimate country of control, the percentage of Canadian value-added, Canadian employment supported by the contract, domestic research and development, intellectual-property ownership and the location of major subcontractors. That would make it easier to distinguish between a multinational building complex equipment in Ontario and a contract that mostly purchases an imported foreign product. Carney’s Buy Canadian promise will ultimately be judged less by corporate labels than by whether Canadian productive capacity, jobs and strategic independence actually grow.

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