This is going to be a jam-packed posting with the AI experts at the Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) virtual panel, a look back at a ‘testy’ exchange between Yoshua Bengio (one of Canada’s godfathers of AI) and a former diplomat from China, an update on Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon and his latest AI push, and a missive from the BC artificial intelligence community.
A Canadian Science Policy Centre AI panel on November 11, 2025
The Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) provides an October 9, 2025 update on an upcoming virtual panel being held on Remembrance Day,
[AI-Driven Misinformation Across Sectors Addressing a Cross-Societal Challenge]
Upcoming Virtual Panel[s]: November 11 [2025]
Artificial Intelligence is transforming how information is created and trusted, offering immense benefits across sectors like healthcare, education, finance, and public discourse—yet also amplifying risks such as misinformation, deepfakes, and scams that threaten public trust. This panel brings together experts from diverse fields [emphasis mine] to examine the manifestations and impacts of AI-driven misinformation and to discuss policy, regulatory, and technical solutions [emphasis mine]. The conversation will highlight practical measures—from digital literacy and content verification to platform accountability—aimed at strengthening resilience in Canada and globally.
For more information on the panel and to register, click below.
Odd timing for this event. Moving on, I found more information on the CSPC’s webpage for this event, Note: Unfortunately, links to the moderator’s and speakers’ bios could not be copied here,
Canadian Science Policy Centre Email info@sciencepolicy.ca
…
This panel brings together cross-sectoral experts to examine how AI-driven misinformation manifests in their respective domains, its consequences, and how policy, regulation, and technical interventions can help mitigate harm. The discussion will explore practical pathways for action, such as digital literacy, risk audits, content verification technologies, platform responsibility, and regulatory frameworks. Attendees will leave with a nuanced understanding of both the risks and the resilience strategies being explored in Canada and globally.
Canada Research Chair in Internet & E-commerce Law, University of Ottawa See Bio
[Panelists]
Dr. Plinio Morita
Associate Professor / Director, Ubiquitous Health Technology Lab, University of Waterloo …
Dr. Nadia Naffi
Université Laval — Associate Professor of Educational Technology and expert on building human agency against AI-augmented disinformation and deepfakes. See Bio
Dr. Jutta Treviranus
Director, Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD U, Expert on AI misinformation in the Education sector and schools. See Bio
Dr. Fenwick McKelvey
Concordia University — Expert in political bots, information flows, and Canadian tech governance See Bio
Michael Geist has his own blog/website featuring posts on his ares of interest and featuring his podcast, Law Bytes. Jutta Treviranus is mentioned in my October 13, 2025 posting as a participant in “Who’s afraid of AI? Arts, Sciences, and the Futures of Intelligence,” a conference (October 23 – 24, 205) and arts festival at the University of Toronto (scroll down to find it) . She’s scheduled for a session on Thursday, October 23, 2025.
China, Canada, and the AI Action summit in February 2025
Zoe Kleinman’s February 10, 2025 article for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news online website also notes the encounter,
A former Chinese official poked fun at a major international AI safety report led by “AI Godfather” professor Yoshua Bengio and co-authored by 96 global experts – in front of him.
Fu Ying, former vice minister of foreign affairs and once China’s UK ambassador, is now an academic at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The pair were speaking at a panel discussion ahead of a two-day global AI summit starting in Paris on Monday [February 10, 2025].
The aim of the summit is to unite world leaders, tech executives, and academics to examine AI’s impact on society, governance, and the environment.
Fu Ying began by thanking Canada’s Prof Bengio for the “very, very long” document, adding that the Chinese translation stretched to around 400 pages and she hadn’t finished reading it.
She also had a dig at the title of the AI Safety Institute – of which Prof Bengio is a member.
China now has its own equivalent; but they decided to call it The AI Development and Safety Network, she said, because there are lots of institutes already but this wording emphasised the importance of collaboration.
The AI Action Summit is welcoming guests from 80 countries, with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Microsoft president Brad Smith and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai among the big names in US tech attending.
Elon Musk is not on the guest list but it is currently unknown whether he will decide to join them. [As of February 13, 2025, Mr. Musk did not attend the summit, which ended February 11, 2025.]
A key focus is regulating AI in an increasingly fractured world. The summit comes weeks after a seismic industry shift as China’s DeepSeek unveiled a powerful, low-cost AI model, challenging US dominance.
The pair’s heated exchanges were a symbol of global political jostling in the powerful AI arms race, but Fu Ying also expressed regret about the negative impact of current hostilities between the US and China on the progress of AI safety.
…
She gave a carefully-crafted glimpse behind the curtain of China’s AI scene, describing an “explosive period” of innovation since the country first published its AI development plan in 2017, five years before ChatGPT became a viral sensation in the west.
She added that “when the pace [of development] is rapid, risky stuff occurs” but did not elaborate on what might have taken place.
“The Chinese move faster [than the west] but it’s full of problems,” she said.
Fu Ying argued that building AI tools on foundations which are open source, meaning everyone can see how they work and therefore contribute to improving them, was the most effective way to make sure the tech did not cause harm.
Most of the US tech giants do not share the tech which drives their products.
Open source offers humans “better opportunities to detect and solve problems”, she said, adding that “the lack of transparency among the giants makes people nervous”.
But Prof Bengio disagreed.
His view was that open source also left the tech wide open for criminals to misuse.
He did however concede that “from a safety point of view”, it was easier to spot issues with the viral Chinese AI assistant DeepSeek, which was built using open source architecture, than ChatGPT, whose code has not been shared by its creator OpenAI.
…
Interesting, non? You can read more about Bengio’s views in an October 1, 2025 article by Rae Witte for Futurism.
In a Policy Forum, Yue Zhu and colleagues provide an overview of China’s emerging regulation for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and its potential contributions to global AI governance. Open-source AI systems from China are rapidly expanding worldwide, even as the country’s regulatory framework remains in flux. In general, AI governance suffers from fragmented approaches, a lack of clarity, and difficulty reconciling innovation with risk management, making global coordination especially hard in the face of rising controversy. Although no official AI law has yet been enacted, experts in China have drafted two influential proposals – the Model AI Law and the AI Law (Scholar’s Proposal) – which serve as key references for ongoing policy discussions. As the nation’s lawmakers prepare to draft a consolidated AI law, Zhu et al. note that the decisions will shape not only China’s innovation, but also global collaboration on AI safety, openness, and risk mitigation. Here, the authors discuss China’s emerging AI regulation as structured around 6 pillars, which, combined, stress exemptive laws, efficient adjudication, and experimentalist requirements, while safeguarding against extreme risks. This framework seeks to balance responsible oversight with pragmatic openness, allowing developers to innovate for the long term and collaborate across the global research community. According to Zhu et al., despite the need for greater clarity, harmonization, and simplification, China’s evolving model is poised to shape future legislation and contribute meaningfully to global AI governance by promoting both safety and innovation at a time when international cooperation on extreme risks is urgently needed.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
China’s emerging regulation toward an open future for AI by Yue Zhu, Bo He, Hongyu Fu, Naying Hu, Shaoqing Wu, Taolue Zhang, Xinyi Liu, Gang Xu, Linghan Zhang, and Hui Zhou. Science 9 Oct 2025Vol 390, Issue 6769 pp. 132-135 DOI: 10.1126/science.ady7922
This paper is behind a paywall.
No mention of Fu Ying or China’s ‘The AI Development and Safety Network’ but perhaps that’s in the paper.
Canada and its Minister of AI and Digital Innovation
Evan Solomon (born April 20, 1968)[citation needed] is a Canadian politician and broadcaster who has been the minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation since May 2025. A member of the Liberal Party, Solomon was elected as the member of Parliament (MP) for Toronto Centre in the April 2025 election.
He was the host of The Evan Solomon Show on Toronto-area talk radio station CFRB,[2] and a writer for Maclean’s magazine. He was the host of CTV’s national political news programs Power Play and Question Period.[3] In October 2022, he moved to New York City to accept a position with the Eurasia Group as publisher of GZERO Media.[4] Solomon continued with CTV News as a “special correspondent” reporting on Canadian politics and global affairs.”[4]
…
Had you asked me what background one needs to be a ‘Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation’, media would not have been my first thought. That said, sometimes people can surprise you.
Solomon appears to be an enthusiast if a June 10, 2025 article by Anja Karadeglija for The Canadian Press is to be believed,
Canada’s new minister of artificial intelligence said Tuesday [June 10, 2025] he’ll put less emphasis on AI regulation and more on finding ways to harness the technology’s economic benefits [emphases mine].
In his first speech since becoming Canada’s first-ever AI minister, Evan Solomon said Canada will move away from “over-indexing on warnings and regulation” to make sure the economy benefits from AI.
His regulatory focus will be on data protection and privacy, he told the audience at an event in Ottawa Tuesday morning organized by the think tank Canada 2020.
Solomon said regulation isn’t about finding “a saddle to throw on the bucking bronco called AI innovation. That’s hard. But it is to make sure that the horse doesn’t kick people in the face. And we need to protect people’s data and their privacy.”
The previous government introduced a privacy and AI regulation bill that targeted high-impact AI systems. It did not become law before the election was called.
That bill is “not gone, but we have to re-examine in this new environment where we’re going to be on that,” Solomon said.
He said constraints on AI have not worked at the international level.
“It’s really hard. There’s lots of leakages,” he said. “The United States and China have no desire to buy into any constraint or regulation.”
That doesn’t mean regulation won’t exist, he said, but it will have to be assembled in steps.
…
Solomon’s comments follow a global shift among governments to focus on AI adoption and away from AI safety and governance.
The first global summit focusing on AI safety was held in 2023 as experts warned of the technology’s dangers — including the risk that it could pose an existential threat to humanity. At a global meeting in Korea last year, countries agreed to launch a network of publicly backed safety institutes.
But the mood had shifted by the time this year’s AI Action Summit began in Paris. …
…
Solomon outlined several priorities for his ministry — scaling up Canada’s AI industry, driving adoption and ensuring Canadians have trust in and sovereignty over the technology.
He said that includes supporting Canadian AI companies like Cohere, which “means using government as essentially an industrial policy to champion our champions.”
The federal government is putting together a task force to guide its next steps on artificial intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon is promising an update to the government’s AI strategy.
Solomon told the All In artificial intelligence conference in Montreal on Wednesday [September 24, 2025] that the “refreshed” strategy will be tabled later this year, “almost two years ahead of schedule.”
…
“We need to update and move quickly,” he said in a keynote speech at the start of the conference.
The task force will include about 20 representatives from industry, academia and civil society. The government says it won’t reveal the membership until later this week.
Solomon said task force members are being asked to consult with their networks, suggest “bold, practical” ideas and report back to him in November [2025].
The group will look at various topics related to AI, including research, adoption, commercialization, investment, infrastructure, skills, and safety and security. The government is also planning to solicit input from the public. [emphasis mine]
Canada was the first country to launch a national AI strategy [the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy announced in 2016], which the government updated in 2022. The strategy focuses on commercialization, the development and adoption of AI standards, talent and research.
Solomon also teased a “major quantum initiative” coming in October [2025?] to ensure both quantum computing talent and intellectual property stay in the country.
Solomon called digital sovereignty “the most pressing policy and democratic issue of our time” and stressed the importance of Canada having its own “digital economy that someone else can’t decide to turn off.”
Solomon said the federal government’s recent focus on major projects extends to artificial intelligence. He compared current conversations on Canada’s AI framework to the way earlier generations spoke about a national railroad or highway.
…
He said his government will address concerns about AI by focusing on privacy reform and modernizing Canada’s 25-year-old privacy law.
“We’re going to include protections for consumers who are concerned about things like deep fakes and protection for children, because that’s a big, big issue. And we’re going to set clear standards for the use of data so innovators have clarity to unlock investment,” Solomon said.
…
The government is consulting with the public? Experience suggests that when all the major decisions will have been made; the public consultation comments will mined so officials can make some minor, unimportant tweaks.
Canada’s AI Task Force and parts of the Empire Club talk are revealed in a September 26, 2025 article by Alex Riehl for BetaKit,
Inovia Capital partner Patrick Pichette, Cohere chief artificial intelligence (AI) officer Joelle Pineau, and Build Canada founder Dan Debow are among 26 members of AI minister Evan Solomon’s AI Strategy Task Force trusted to help the federal government renew its AI strategy.
Solomon revealed the roster, filled with leading Canadian researchers and business figures, while speaking at the Empire Club in Toronto on Friday morning [September 26, 2025]. He teased its formation at the ALL IN conference earlier this week [September 24, 2025], saying the team would include “innovative thinkers from across the country.”
The group will have 30 days to add to a collective consultation process in areas including research, talent, commercialization, safety, education, infrastructure, and security.
…
The full AI Strategy Task Force is listed below; each member will consult their network on specific themes.
Research and Talent
Gail Murphy, professor of computer science and vice-president – research and innovation, University of British Columbia and vice-chair at the Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Diane Gutiw, VP – global AI research lead, CGI Canada and co-chair of the Advisory Council on AI
Michael Bowling, professor of computer science and principal investigator – Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence Lab, University of Alberta and research fellow, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and Canada CIFAR AI chair
Arvind Gupta, professor of computer science, University of Toronto
Adoption across industry and governments
Olivier Blais, co-founder and VP of AI, Moov and co-chair of the Advisory Council on AI
Cari Covent, technology executive
Dan Debow, chair of the board, Build Canada
Commercialization of AI
Louis Têtu, executive chairman, Coveo
Michael Serbinis, founder and CEO, League and board chair of the Perimeter Institute
Adam Keating, CEO and Founder, CoLab
Scaling our champions and attracting investment
Patrick Pichette, general partner, Inovia Capital
Ajay Agrawal, professor of strategic management, University of Toronto, founder, Next Canada and founder, Creative Destruction Lab
Sonia Sennik, CEO, Creative Destruction Lab
Ben Bergen, president, Council of Canadian Innovators
Building safe AI systems and public trust in AI
Mary Wells, dean of engineering, University of Waterloo
Joelle Pineau, chief AI officer, Cohere
Taylor Owen, founding director, Center [sic] for Media, Technology and Democracy [McGill University]
Education and Skills
Natiea Vinson, CEO, First Nations Technology Council
Alex Laplante, VP – cash management technology Canada, Royal Bank of Canada and board member at Mitacs
David Naylor, professor of medicine – University of Toronto
Infrastructure
Garth Gibson, chief technology and AI officer, VDURA
Ian Rae, president and CEO, Aptum
Marc Etienne Ouimette, chair of the board, Digital Moment and member, OECD One AI Group of Experts, affiliate researcher, sovereign AI, Cambridge University Bennett School of Public Policy
Security
Shelly Bruce, distinguished fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation
James Neufeld, founder and CEO, Samdesk
Sam Ramadori, co-president and executive director, LawZero
With files from Josh Scott
If you have the time, Riehl ‘s September 26, 2025 article offers more depth than may be apparent in the excerpts I’ve chosen.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Arvind Gupta’s name. I’m glad to see he’s part of this Task Force (Research and Talent). The man was treated quite shamefully at the University of British Columbia. (For the curious, this August 18, 2015 article by Ken MacQueen for Maclean’s Magazine presents a somewhat sanitized [in my opinion] review of the situation.)
One final comment, the experts on the virtual panel and members of Solomon’s Task Force are largely from Ontario and Québec. There is minor representation from others parts of the country but it is minor.
British Columbia wants entry into the national AI discussion
Just after I finished writing up this post, I received Kris Krug’s (techartist, quasi-sage, cyberpunk anti-hero from the future) October 14, 2025 communication (received via email) regarding an initiative from the BC + AI community,
Growth vs Guardrails: BC’s Framework for Steering AI
Our open letter to Minister Solomon shares what we’ve learned building community-led AI governance and how BC can help.
Ottawa created a Minister of Artificial Intelligence and just launched a national task force to shape the country’s next AI strategy. The conversation is happening right now about who gets compute, who sets the rules, and whose future this technology will serve.
Our new feature, Growth vs Guardrails [see link to letter below for ‘guardrails’], is already making the rounds in those rooms. The message is simple: if Ottawa’s foot is on the gas, BC is the steering wheel and the brakes. We can model a clean, ethical, community-led path that keeps power with people and place.
This is the time to show up together. Not as scattered voices, but as a connected movement with purpose, vision, and political gravity.
Over the past few months, almost 100 of us have joined as the new BC + AI Ecosystem Association non-profit as Founding Members. Builders. Artists. Researchers. Investors. Educators. Policymakers. People who believe that tech should serve communities, not the other way around.
Now we’re opening the door wider. Join and you’ll be part of the core group that built this from the ground up. Your membership is declaration that British Columbia deserves to shape its own AI future with ethics, creativity, and care.
If you’ve been watching from the sidelines, this is the time to lean in. We don’t do panels. We do portals. And this is the biggest one we’ve opened yet.
See you inside,
Kris Krüg Executive Director BC + AI Ecosystem Association kk@bc-ai.ca | bc-ai.ca
Canada just spun up a 30-day sprint to shape its next AI strategy. Minister Evan Solomon assembled 26 experts (mostly industry and academia) to advise on research, adoption, commercialization, safety, skills, and infrastructure.
On paper, it’s a pivot moment. In practice, it’s already drawing fire. Too much weight on scaling, not enough on governance. Too many boardrooms, not enough frontlines. Too much Ottawa, not enough ground truth.
…
This is Canada’s chance to reset the DNA of its AI ecosystem.
But only if we choose regeneration over extraction, sovereign data governance over corporate capture, and community benefit over narrow interests.
…
The Problem With The Task Force
Research says: The group’s stacked with expertise. But critics flag the imbalance. Where’s healthcare? Where’s civil society beyond token representation? Where are the people who’ll feel AI’s impact first: frontline workers, artists, community organizers?
…
The worry:Commercialization and scaling overshadow public trust, governance, and equitable outcomes. Again.
The numbers back this up: Only 24% of Canadians have AI training. Just 38% feel confident in their knowledge. Nearly two-thirds see potential harm. 71% would trust AI more under public regulation.
We’re building a national strategy on a foundation of low literacy and eroding trust. That’s not a recipe for sovereignty. That’s a recipe for capture.
Principles for a National AI Strategy: What BC + AI Stands For
I last wrote about Canada’s Phoenix pay system in an August 20, 2024 posting “From the Phoenix payroll system to Dayforce? Hopefully an improvement for Canadian government employees—one day” when a new pay system was being discussed,
A payroll system for federal workers intended to replace the much-maligned Phoenix platform is still years away from being fully implemented, according to a senior government official.
…
At a new conference on Tuesday [July 9, 2024], Alex Benay, associate deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement, said testing began on Phoenix’s replacement, Dayforce, in 2022.
“This is the year that we are building Dayforce as a replacement system for HR and pay and determining if it is a feasible solution for the Government of Canada,” Benay said.
Benay said the switch won’t happen overnight, however, and cautioned it may take years until the new system is fully implemented. In the meantime, Phoenix will remain in use.
…
Brief background information
I have covered the debacle that is the implementation of the Canadian federal government’s disastrous implementation of the Phoenix pay system in early 2016 (see my December 27, 2019 post for a comprehensive overview). In 2019, there was a then new Minister of Digital Government, Joyce Murray. That position was eliminated in 2021 and Murray became the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard leaving no one at the cabinet level in charge of ‘digital government’. Four years later, with the advent of Mark Carney as the Prime Minister of Canada, as of June 2025, there is now a Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon.
Early 2025
Early this year (2025) before the new government was elected, there were news reports suggesting that the Phoenix pay system situation had not improved much, from a January 24, 2025 article “Ottawa to tap AI to assist with Phoenix pay system backlog” by Adam Huras in the Vancouver Sun. p. NP6,
The federal government says it’s slowly inching closer to a permanent replacement of the controversial [emphasis mine] Phoenix pay system, with officials to decide by the end of March [2025] whether a new payroll platform can be implemented next year [2026] [emphasis mine].
But it will be another 18 months of configuration and testing to fully launch the change.
And the new system will likely also run in parallel with the existing one [emphasis mine] for another four to six months after that to ensure thing work they way they should.
That’s as massive backlogs persist.
…
An online dashboard last updated in December [2024] by the federal government shows a backlog of 388,00 transaction. That’s down from 416,000 last June [2024].
More than half 201,000 are more than a year old.
To help the federal government is expanding its use of artificial intelligence [AI] [emphasis mine], specifically a virtual assistant tool that helps fix data discrepancies in pay and compensation services.
That tool has bee in testing. With the help of 30 compensation advisers. …
Controversy? There is none. Even the contractor, IBM, advised against the implementation as the Phoenix pay system wasn’t tested in the field. Plus, there was no backup system in place. On a happier note, it seems that it’s being done differently this time.
There is more to the Phoenix pay system failure as Jamey Mills (regional executive vice-president for the Public Service Alliance of Canada, BC Region. PSAC) notes in her February 27, 2025 article for vancouverisawesome.com,
Trust is the foundation of any workplace. Workers commit to doing their jobs, and in return, they expect to be treated with respect and paid fairly. But for the past nine years, the federal government has broken that trust with its own workers.
Nine years ago, the federal government launched the Phoenix pay system, promising efficiency and accuracy. Instead, it delivered chaos. From the very start, workers reported missing paycheques, incorrect salaries, and severe financial hardship.
Nearly a decade later, the crisis remains unresolved, with more than 383,000 pay issues still in the backlog. The workers affected by Phoenix are not just numbers in a system—they are people with mortgages, bills, and families to support.
…
No one should have to worry about whether their next paycheque will arrive on time or in the right amount. But Phoenix is just one example of a broader issue: a pattern of neglect when it comes to supporting federal public service workers. Chronic understaffing, outsourcing, and budget cuts [emphasis mine] have put incredible strain on these workers, forcing them to do more with less while dealing with the ongoing stress of an unreliable payroll system. These are the same workers who process our passports, protect our borders, support veterans, inspect our food and transportation, and keep government programs running. They are the backbone of the public services we all depend on.
…
This isn’t just about solving the issues with this broken pay system. It’s about rebuilding trust in the federal government as an employer and ensuring that public service workers are valued, respected, and properly supported. When these workers are treated as an afterthought, it’s not just them who suffer—it’s every Canadian who relies on strong, well-functioning public services.
If the federal government wants to recruit and retain the best talent, it needs to do better. [emphasis mine] That starts with listening to workers, investing in stable and well-staffed public services, and fixing Phoenix once and for all.
Mills and, by extension, PSAC are not the only ones to note problems with the federal civil service. I’ve heard at least one political pundit stating that the federal civil service is ‘broken’, while notice was made that it was at one time considered excellent.
The Government of Canada is taking the next step toward replacing the Phoenix pay system to drive efficiency and effectiveness across government.
Today, the Honourable Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement, announced that the Government of Canada is moving forward to the final build and testing phase of the Dayforce HR and pay solution. This decision follows the completion of a rigorous feasibility study and marks a significant step toward modernizing the government’s HR and pay systems.
The Dayforce solution will replace a significant number of HR systems in use across the Government of Canada. It reflects the government’s continued commitment to business and digital transformation built on transparency, efficiency, and employee experience.
The Government of Canada will finalize the configuration and testing of Dayforce and work with departments to confirm their readiness to onboard. This phased approach builds on lessons learned and will help reduce risks associated with large-scale transformation and ensure a smooth transition for employees.
Employee engagement will continue to be a key focus throughout the transformation process. By involving employees in readiness activities and ensuring continuous feedback mechanisms, the government is implementing an HR and pay solution that offers an efficient people-centric platform aligned with workforce needs.
Quotes
“The Government of Canada remains committed to modernizing its HR and pay systems in a responsible and transparent manner. By investing in the future of HR and pay, we are taking an important step forward in ensuring an efficient, secure, and sustainable solution for public service employees.”
The Honourable Joël Lightbound Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement
“We are excited to strengthen our partnership with the Government of Canada. Dayforce brings together advanced technologies into a single, AI-powered people platform designed to simplify processes and deliver real value. We are committed to supporting this transformative HR and pay initiative, ensuring it enhances work-life and drives meaningful improvements for government employees across the country.”
David Ossip Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Dayforce, Inc.
Quick facts
The current pay system is used to deliver pay to an average of 431,000 current and former employees bi-weekly. In 2024, this represented approximately 13.4 million payments, totalling approximately $40.1 billion.
The complexity of the Government of Canada HR and pay environment includes the challenge of applying almost 150 different collective agreements representing employees from over 100 departments and agencies.
The initiative is incorporating lessons learned from the previous pay system implementation and recommendations intended to guide future projects of similar size and scope. In particular, recommendations around stakeholder engagement and governance were guided by Lessons Learned from the Transformation of Pay Administration Initiative (Goss Gilroy report).
Over 3,000 public servants participated in user awareness sessions during the feasibility project, with the majority of participants reporting that they found Dayforce simple and easy to use. Feedback from participants is being used to improve the system further.
Dayforce is a global human capital management technology company with deep Canadian roots. Its single AI-powered people platform for HR, pay, time, talent and analytics is trusted by thousands of customers and serves millions of employees worldwide.
Over the next 2 years, the deployment of the Dayforce solution will begin to progressively onboard starting with two departments and a separate agency, where the Government of Canada will focus on departmental readiness as it prepares to deploy the system.
Josh Pringle’s June 12, 2025 article (with files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Ottawa’s William Eltherington and Ted Raymond) for CTV news online is a little less ebullient,
The days of the troubled Phoenix pay system appear to be numbered, as the federal government moves forward with implementing the new Dayforce system for human resources and payroll tasks.
Public Works and Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound announced Wednesday [June 11, 2025] that the government is moving ahead to the “final build and testing phase” of the Dayforce HR and pay solution for government employees, replacing the Phoenix system.
….
The Phoenix pay system was launched by the federal government in 2016. Since then, thousands of civil servants have been paid incorrectly by the pay system.
At least $3.5 billion has been spent by the government on the Phoenix pay system since 2017.
There were 327,000 transactions waiting to be processed through the Phoenix pay system, including 331,000 financial transactions and 9,000 transactions related to collective bargaining agreements. The government’s website shows 49 per cent of the outstanding transactions are over a year old.
In 2018, the government announced plans to replace the Phoenix pay system. More than $150 million has been spent looking into a new platform to replace the pay system.
…
Sharon DeSousa, national president for the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said in a statement the new pay system must be proven to work.
“After everything our members have been through at the hands of the Phoenix disaster [emphasis mine], the next pay system has to work, and it has to work from day one. That’s why PSAC is at the table asking the tough questions — to prevent another pay system disaster,” DeSousa said. “This isn’t just a tech upgrade — it’s about rebuilding trust. That starts with paying workers accurately and on time, every time. It’s the most basic obligation of any employer.”
She added that the government must not ignore the ongoing issues with Phoenix.
“With 327,000 outstanding cases, stabilizing the current system and hiring enough compensation advisors to handle pay issues has to be a top priority.”
I wish them well with their efforts to finally make bring this Phoenix pay system debacle to an end.
It is a bit curious to me that there isn’t a quote from Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, in a government news release where there’s a major initiative involving the use of artificial intelligence.
