- TechTO
- Posts
- $2.36B federal IT spend. Are you on the list?
$2.36B federal IT spend. Are you on the list?
There’s $690M leaving US firms. Here’s where it’s going.
You are receiving the Community Edition of today’s newsletter - upgrade to a Member to receive additional perks and experiences
The $2.36B document most founders haven't opened
Shared Services Canada just published their 2026-27 Departmental Plan. Three things inside it matter for Canadian founders right now.
1. "Buy Canadian" is now a mandate, not a suggestion.
SSC is the largest IT buyer in the federal government, and they've been explicitly instructed to prioritize Canadian vendors. That means cloud, AI, security, and data infrastructure.
If your product fits any of those categories, there is a $2.36 billion customer who is now required to look at you first.
The policy currently applies to contracts $25M and above. That threshold drops to $5M by June 2026. The window to get positioned before your competitors is right now
2. $690M in existing contracts are being cut, and the companies losing them aren't Canadian.
SSC is slashing $159M this fiscal year, $212M next year, $318M by 2028-29. The goal is explicit: reduce dependency on large US-based professional services firms and retire legacy systems.
That replacement spend doesn't have a home… yet.
This isn't austerity. It's a vendor shuffle. And right now, the shelf is mostly empty of qualified Canadian alternatives. That's the gap.
3. The government needs Canadian vendors to build their Sovereign AI Platform, and American cloud can't do it.
CANChat, their internal generative AI tool, is going enterprise-wide this year. The compute infrastructure must stay on Canadian soil - Protected B data requirements mean US cloud platforms literally can’t qualify.
SSC is actively reaching out to Canadian cloud and AI companies to expand capacity. That’s a structural moat that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
NationGraph - a Canadian AI startup built for government procurement research - just closed an $18M Series B. This is a platform that cuts procurement research from 30 hours a month to zero. If you want proof that other founders see this opportunity, there it is. Join us on April 13 at ‘Best Of’ to hear from Eden Ding, Co-Founder and CTO of NationGraph. Come hear how he built in this exact space.
Get your Best Of ticket → Early bird: CA$35 - limited time.
What to do:
If any of these categories apply to your company - cloud, AI, security, data - just read the actual plan. It's public, it's free, and most of your competitors haven't opened it yet.
Is government on your radar as a customer? Hit reply with: Radar or Written off.
Three roles worth knowing about this week…
FP&A Analyst / Senior Analyst - Readymode Profitable, bootstrapped SaaS scaleup. You’ll work closely with the CFO, own the models, and help shape the finance stack - not just maintain it. 3-6 years FP&A, SaaS exposure preferred. Advanced Excel a hard requirement. Remote.
Senior Software Engineer, AI Agents - Klue Building LLM-powered agents for competitive intelligence at scale. Agentic workflows end to end - retrieval pipelines, evaluation frameworks, human-in-the-loop systems. 5+ years backend, Python, RAG. Vancouver, Toronto, or London.
Head of Engineering - CoRecruit Backed by the same investors as Groq, Anduril, and Substack. Thousands of paying users across 20+ countries. First engineering leader - player-coach reporting to the CTO. You build the culture, not just the team. 6+ years engineering, 2+ years leadership. Remote, Ontario.
Powered by GuruLink
CIX Summit + Afterparty host by TechTO
CIX Summit is happening on March 25 at the Design Exchange. Canada's largest startup awards program, 19 years running.
Community perk: Use code CIXTECHTO20 for 20% off your pass at cixsummit.com - valid until March 25.
You don't need a CIX ticket to come.
Right after the Summit, TechTO is hosting the official Afterparty at Scotland Yard Pub - March 25, 5:30-9:00 PM, steps from the Design Exchange.
Founders, operators, builders from the TechTO community. Drinks, music, real conversations. No agenda, no pitch format.
Didn't get time with someone during the day? This is your second shot. Investors are more candid after 5 PM. Founders are more honest too.
Official CIX Summit Afterparty - hosted by TechTO
📍 Scotland Yard Pub | March 25 | 5:30-9:00 PM
Growth Table: CIX Summit: Tuesday, March 24 @ 6:00pm - REQUEST TO JOIN
CIX Summit Afterparty: Wednesday, March 25 @ 5:30pm - GET YOUR TICKETS
TechTO community exclusive: Get 20% off CIX passes with code CIXTECHTO20
Best Of: Monday, April 13 @ 6:00pm - EARLY BIRD TICKETS
Commerce Toronto: Tuesday, April 21 @ 5:30pm - EARLY BIRD TICKETS
Sales Toronto: Wednesday, April 22 @ 6:00pm - EARLY BIRD TICKETS
Together Toronto: Monday, May 4 @ 6:00pm - EARLY BIRD TICKETS
Pre-Event: Exclusive Session for Y Combinator S26 Applicants @ 5:00pm - REQUIRE APPROVAL
Don’t forget to lock in your year of TechTO! Subscribe to our full events calendar
This week, the government opened a door, capital is in the room, and the right people are hiring. Not every week looks like this.
Keep building!
JOIN 1000+ MEMBERS → Members get free tickets to all Together events, quarterly founder socials, private Slack access, and a vote on podcast guests.
Annual: $249/year | Founding: $1,199 One-time payment, lifetime access
Reply