Canada’s Department of National Defence plans to spend $7.4 million each year on two software licences from Palantir Technologies, the Investigative Journalism Foundation reports, expanding the US data-analytics company’s role within the Canadian military.
The department disclosed the planned purchase after the Investigative Journalism Foundation asked why the agreement had not appeared in the federal government’s public contracting records. National Defence said it had “inadvertently omitted” the contract announcement.
According to the department, Palantir’s software is used to support Royal Canadian Air Force search-and-rescue operations. The available public reporting does not specify the names of the two software products, how many personnel will use them, or how long the planned licensing arrangement will remain in force.
Sponsored · Selkirk Copper Mines
Palantir develops software that allows government and commercial organizations to combine, organize, and analyze information drawn from multiple databases. The company markets its technology for defence operations, intelligence analysis, logistics, and real-time decision-making.
The latest purchase is not Canada’s first contract with Palantir. In March 2019, Public Services and Procurement Canada awarded the company a one-year, non-competitive contract worth $997,434 on behalf of National Defence. The agreement supplied Palantir information-management software for a military pilot project.
The government said the 2019 contract was awarded without competition because Palantir owned the intellectual property and was the only supplier capable of providing the required software. CanadaBuys lists exclusive rights as the reason for using limited tendering.
Federal contracting records also show that the 2019 agreement was initially omitted from proactive disclosure. The government’s database later identified it as a sole-sourced purchase of a “Palantir Intelligence Processing Tool.”
Palantir has also secured access to broader federal procurement channels. CanadaBuys lists the company under professional-services and cloud-software supply arrangements running into 2028. Those arrangements allow departments to purchase eligible services, but their listed value of $0 does not show how much the government has ordered or spent through them.
The alleged $7.4 million annual plan therefore represents a larger recurring commitment than the publicly disclosed 2019 pilot.
The planned purchase also highlights a broader tension in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s economic agenda. Since taking office, Carney has repeatedly argued that Canada must reduce its dependence on the US by diversifying trade, investment, and strategic partnerships following tariffs and other trade disputes with Washington. Yet the military’s latest technology investment would deepen its reliance on a US software company for a growing share of its data and operational capabilities.
