Question Period Note: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROCUREMENT IN THE GOVERNMENT OF

The Government of Canada is exploring opportunities to responsibly use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve services for Canadians. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) in collaboration with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) have developed a list of prequalified AI vendors to facilitate agile adoption of the technology across the Government of Canada.

• Canada has developed an iterative and flexible approach to procuring AI services, solutions and products that builds in ethics and responsible use.
• This innovative process encourages more open dialogue between industry and government, reducing the cost to compete for government contracts and making opportunities more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
• The government’s commitment to ensuring transparency and procedural fairness is paramount throughout this process.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) has introduced tools and guidance for departments in the evaluation, procurement, implementation, and maintenance of AI systems.

One of such tools is the AI Source list. On September 22nd, 2018 the Government of Canada published an Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) through buyandsell.gc.ca for the purposes of creating a procurement mechanism for government organizations to use AI services.

The ITQ followed a Request for Information issued in June 2018, where Canada was seeking to better understand the capability, viability and commercial availability of the AI ecosystem of services, solutions and products.

Following the ITQ evaluation, TBS in coordination with PSPC finalized the list of qualified suppliers that offer AI services called the AI Source List. This included advanced data analytics and machine learning approaches for broad use across service delivery, policy development and regulations.

The AI Source List can be used by departments to support experimentation and agile development of AI solutions.

The AI Source List will be refreshed on an ongoing basis.

KEY FACTS • TBS and PSPC developed a list of 74 pre-qualified AI suppliers called the AI Source List; 46 are Canadian (62%).
• The AI Source List was published on January 15, 2019.
• Suppliers were pre-qualified based on their experience, skills and ethical AI practices.