Weapons manufacturers, shipbuilders and a real estate management firm are among the companies winning the most money from Canada’s federal government, according to an IJF analysis.
Public contract records indicate 10 companies and their subsidiaries have been awarded more than $88 billion in federal funds since 2004.
That’s more than 25 per cent of the $342 billion the federal government awarded in that time period, according to a review of more than 933,000 contracts published by the federal Treasury Board Secretariat.
Those top ten companies include weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, shipbuilders Irving and Seaspan and tech giant IBM.
The money bought everything from management services for the federal government’s Ottawa offices to stealth fighter jets paid for by taxpayers.
The federal department that spent the most money on procurement, by far, was the Department of National Defence, which awarded more than 262,000 contracts valued at over $161 billion in the studied time period.
Of the top ten suppliers to the federal government, three are defence contractors and seven received most of their awarded contracts from that department.
The data is subject to caveats. The Treasury Board Secretariat’s data is reported by departments. It may differ from the amount the federal government will spend after a contract has been awarded. The Treasury Board Secretariat told the IJF that “individual government entities are responsible for publishing complete, accurate and timely information” on its online portal.
When contracts were awarded to a joint venture, they are grouped with the first company named in that joint venture.
Departments are also only required to report contracts valued at $10,000 or more and the values are not adjusted for inflation.
#1: Brookfield Global Integrated Services Inc.
Value of awarded contracts: $16.2 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 613
The federal government’s largest supplier is a company it pays to manage its buildings.
Since 2013, Brookfield Global Integrated Services Inc., or BGIS, has been awarded roughly $16.2 billion across 613 contracts.
The most lucrative are multi-billion dollar agreements to manage the federal government’s vast real estate holdings.
In 1998, the federal government began outsourcing property management work to the private sector.
In 2014, BGIS won the first set of what the federal government calls the “Real Property” agreements, giving it six separate contracts to manage roughly 3,800 buildings that are either owned or leased by the federal government. Those contracts expire in 2028.
The regional contract that includes the National Capital Region, where many federal offices are based, is worth $5.7 billion alone, according to a statement from Procurement and Public Services Canada, or PSPC.
That statement said using a private provider creates “an efficient and cost effective way to deliver day-to-day operational services, which enables PSPC to focus on core real property advisory and service management roles.”
BGIS did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But in 2018, company CEO Gordon Hicks told a House of Commons committee that BGIS “subcontracts in excess of 80% of the available spend it manages on behalf of the government” for many of those Real Property contracts. PSPC estimated the figure was actually around 68 per cent.
Those subcontracts are not posted publicly by the government, but PSPC said BGIS is required to use “fair, open, transparent, and competitive processes, including opportunities for Indigenous-owned businesses and businesses owned by underrepresented groups.”
In 2019, New York private equity firm CCMP Capital bought BGIS for roughly US$1 billion from Brookfield Asset Management, a Toronto-based multinational.
#2: Lockheed Martin
Value of awarded contracts: $13.4 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 280
The federal government’s second-biggest contractor is an American global security and aerospace company that sells the government everything from radar technology to fighter jets.
The federal government has awarded Lockheed Martin 280 contracts since 2004 that are collectively valued at $13.4 billion.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of those contracts were with the Department of National Defence, which has awarded Lockheed 252 contracts for aircraft, military helicopters, weapons and other supplies. Lockheed Martin was also subcontracted by Irving Shipbuilding to design a new class of destroyer for the Canadian navy — money that doesn’t appear in this total, since Irving is the primary contractor.
Lockheed’s spokesperson Amanda Hauck said they are Canada’s largest defence partner and have had a partnership with the country for over 80 years.
Canada’s biggest purchase from them is a fleet of stealth fighter jets the country had been mulling buying for more than a decade.
In 2010, then-prime minister Stephen Harper’s government announced plans to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets to replace Canada’s aging CF-18 hornets. The independent Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer said at the time that the cost could run as high as $29.3 billion over 30 years.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned in 2015 on scrapping that purchase. But last year, the Liberal government announced it would buy 88 of the jets after all. The projected cost is $19 billion, which the government said includes facility upgrades in two Canadian Air Force bases.
The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer has said the planes will cost $73.9 billion over their 45-year lifespan.
#3: General Dynamics
Value of awarded contracts: $11.2 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 1,265
American defence contractor General Dynamics is the third-largest supplier to the Canadian government, thanks to hundreds of contracts it holds with the Department of National Defence.
The largest of those is a $2.1 billion contract for armoured vehicles, including ambulances and engineer support vehicles.
General Dynamics, which operates a production facility in London, Ont., was awarded that contract directly in 2019 without any competitive bid process.
Canada gave 39 of those armoured cars to Ukraine after Russia invaded that country in 2022. But the Department of National Defence says it intends to make up for that by buying even more armoured vehicles from General Dynamics.
The Department of National Defence has pegged the cost of that donation — which included training services and spare parts — at around $245 million.
As part of the deal, General Dynamics also received a $650-million loan from Export Development Canada, a federal Crown corporation, that was backstopped by the country’s treasury.
Global Affairs Canada said the terms of the loan were confidential but that General Dynamics had repaid the debt as of the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
The company and federal government declined to say exactly what the loan was for, but the Globe and Mail reported in 2020 that it was awarded as General Dynamics struggled to secure payments for armoured vehicles it was selling to Saudi Arabia.
Those sales, which were valued at $13 billion and approved by Ottawa, were controversial because of Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights abuses. In 2018, the company urged the federal government not to cancel the contract, warning it could kill jobs and that the federal government might face “billions” in liabilities.
General Dynamics continues to receive federal business. This year the company announced it won a pair of contracts to supply road motor vehicles as part of a joint venture with Marshall Canada, an offshoot of the Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group.
Those contracts, which include building and servicing more than 1,500 light and heavy vehicles, are collectively valued at more than $2.5 billion, according to a press release.
The IJF provided a list of contracts included in this tally to General Dynamics for verification, but the company did not comment on that assessment or its contracts with the government.
#4: Seaspan
Value of awarded contracts: $9.1 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 126
North Vancouver shipbuilder Seaspan has won billions in federal dollars in recent years as the federal government spends big to fix and grow its aging fleet.
In total, Seaspan has been awarded 126 federal contracts worth more than $9.1 billion since 2004.
Most of that money has come since 2010, when the federal government launched its National Shipbuilding Strategy. Since then, Seaspan has won contracts to build 21 large icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard, including a flagship vessel expected to be among the largest such vessels ever constructed. It is also building two large naval support ships for the Royal Canadian Navy, tugboats, rescue vessels and research vessels.
Seaspan spokesperson Jessica Gares said the company has delivered three ships under the federal strategy so far, with four more expected to be delivered next year. The company, Gares wrote, is also working on long-term modernization projects for navy submarines and frigates.
The national shipbuilding strategy has not been without controversy or expense. In 2020, Seaspan won a $2.4 billion contract to build the joint support ships for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Earlier this month, the government quietly announced the price had increased by $951 million, something a military spokesperson attributed to “lessons learned from developing a new type of warship for the RCN, COVID-19 impacts that resulted in labour and supply chain disruptions, economic price adjustments, foreign exchange rate fluctuations, and changes in labour rates.”
Seaspan is part of the Washington Companies, owned by American billionaire Dennis Washington.
#5: Irving Shipbuilding
Value of awarded contracts: $8.6 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 47
Right behind Seaspan is another shipbuilder, this one owned by one of Canada’s most powerful families.
Irving Shipbuilding, operating under the name Halifax Shipyard, has landed more than $8.6 billion in federal contracts since 2004.
In 2014, Irving signed a deal with the Department of National Defence to build five Arctic and offshore patrol ships at a projected cost of $2.6 billion.
But over the next decade, the project’s scope — and cost — dramatically increased.
The contract was amended again in 2018 to add a sixth ship, and again in 2022 to add two more similar boats for the Canadian Coast Guard.
That year, the budget for the project also increased a further $745 million, the Department of National Defence said. It blamed that on “impacts on construction due to the COVID pandemic, production inefficiencies, global supply chain challenges, and higher than anticipated inflation.”
The new projected value of the contract is $5.8 billion.
The company has also announced it has won a contract to build 15 other warships to replace the Halifax-class frigates. The federal government has pegged the cost of that project at roughly $60 billion, but the independent Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer says the final sum may be $84.5 billion.
Irving Shipbuilding is one of many private companies owned by the Irving family, whose interests stretch from real estate to oil refining to pulp and paper mills. The family is among the wealthiest in Canada — and one of the largest political donors in their home province of New Brunswick.
#6: Airbus
Value of awarded contracts: $6.8 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 306
Aircraft company Airbus has won billions in federal contracts since 2004. It has sold video equipment to the RCMP, scientific services to the Canadian Space Agency and done engineering work for the military.
But its biggest contract by far is a $3.7 billion deal signed last year to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force’s aging fleet of transport aircraft — which were also built by Airbus.
Under the deal, Airbus will build four new specialized military transport aircraft. It will also modify five used aircraft the federal government says it acquired through separate procurement agreements.
A release from the federal Department of National Defence says the primary use of those planes will be “air-to-air” refueling — that is, transferring fuel from one plane to another while both are still in the sky. The military says this will “enhance Canadian sovereignty operations, including in the Arctic.” One of the aircraft will also be primarily used “to provide secure transport of high-ranking government officials.”
Airbus spokesperson Amelie Forcier told the IJF in a statement that Airbus has done business with the federal government for 40 years.
She declined to comment on the specifics of contracts, but said Airbus leads the Canadian market for helicopter production and that their vehicles are used by more than 220 operators throughout the country.
#7: IBM
Value of awarded contracts: $6.2 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 2305
Tech giant IBM has won more than 2,300 contracts with the federal government — including some related to a defective payment system that has wreaked havoc for civil servants.
IBM’s products include hardware solutions, software, IT services and management consulting for a vast array of government agencies, including Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Canadian Border Services Agency, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Department of National Defence.
But its work for the federal government has been controversial at times.
In 2011, IBM was the only bidder on a contract to design and build a new pay system for civil servants.
That system — called Phoenix — went live in 2016. By 2018, a standing Senate committee estimated it had created payment issues for more than half the 290,000 workers in the federal service. It has since been called a “national disgrace” and an “international embarrassment.”
It was also expensive. The project had an initial slated budget of $310 million. But Wojo Zielonka, an assistant deputy minister with PSPC, said at a November 2023 House of Commons committee meeting that the "total investment" in Phoenix was $3.5 billion. Zielonka said that "includes both the cost of continuing to pay public servants and dealing with items like the backlog, as well as continuing to improve the system so that it can accurately pay public servants."
IBM did not respond to specific questions about the IJF’s analysis and said it “doesn’t typically discuss details of work with our clients.”
But in response to a separate inquiry related to IBM’s contracts with the government, spokesperson Lorraine Baldwin said IBM continues to work with the government on successfully satisfying the requirements of the Phoenix contracts.
“We are proud of our work for the Canadian Government and of our unique and leading position in implementing technology solutions, and remain committed to supporting the government in its payroll transformation,” Baldwin wrote.
#8: L3Harris
Value of awarded contracts: $5.8 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 568
American defence contractor L3Harris and its predecessor companies have done business with Canada’s Department of National Defence for decades.
L-3 Communications held a contract with the department for years to operate and maintain its fleet of CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. That company later merged with Harris Company in 2019 to become L3Harris.
As of 2004, that contract was worth nearly $241 million. But it has been renewed multiple times, a Department of National Defence spokesperson said, and is now valued at more than $2.5 billion. That spokesperson said the contract was not competitively sourced "as there was only one vendor capable of satisfying all requirements.”
The current contract lasts until 2027 and could be extended again for a further five years.
#9: CAE
Value of awarded contracts: $5.8 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 185
CAE — formerly known as Canadian Aviation Electronics — was founded in 1947 by an ex-member of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Today, the company is making billions from the Air Force, largely by teaching its pilots how to fly.
Since 1998, the company has held a contract with the Department of National Defence to provide military pilot training for a NATO-affiliated training operation based at 15 Wing in Moose Jaw, Sask.
That contract has been extended multiple times. As of 2022, it was valued at $4.5 billion.
CAE holds a number of other lucrative contracts with the Department of National Defence. In 2009, it won a $714 million contract to provide weapons and airplane parts to the Air Force’s 8 Wing base in Trenton, Ont.
And last year, the company announced it had won a $11.2 billion, 25-year deal for the Air Force’s Future Aircrew Training program. CAE holds that contract as part of a joint venture with Kelowna-based KF Aerospace, which is why it is not included in this analysis.
#10: PCL Constructors
Value of awarded contracts: $5.5 billion
Number of awarded contracts: 111
On paper, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat reports that PCL Constructors holds a nearly $2.9 billion dollar contract with the federal government for “Miscellaneous expenditures not Elsewhere Classified.”
The reality is that the Edmonton-based construction company is one of two firms responsible for fixing the building that houses Canada’s parliament.
In 2017, a joint venture of PCL and construction company EllisDon won a contract to oversee the restoration of Centre Block on Parliament Hill, which houses both chambers of Canada’s government.
Today, that contract is valued at nearly $2.9 billion, well below the $5 billion budget originally announced for the project.
But Public Services and Procurement Canada spokesperson Jeremy Link said the contract value would likely be increased as work progresses and PSPC approves further expenditures.
“This allows the project to maintain momentum while managing risk and ensuring the effective use of funding,” Link wrote.
Overall, the IJF’s analysis found PCL has won 111 federal contracts since 2008 with a collective value of $5.5 billion, the vast majority of them with PSPC.
PCL declined to comment on the IJF’s analysis of contracts it holds with the federal government, but spokesman Shane Jones wrote in an email that the company is “committed to maintaining transparency and integrity in all aspects of our business, including our interactions with political entities.”
“We adhere to rigorous ethical standards and comply with all laws and regulations governing open and transparent tendering practices, particularly those involving federal government agencies,” Jones wrote.