OTTAWA — Over a six-month period, the federal government awarded more than 70 per cent of contracts under its Buy Canadian procurement policy to foreign-owned subsidiaries, according to data from Public Services and Procurement Canada.

The figures, which cover December 2025 to June 2026, shed light on which firms have benefited from the government’s early efforts to bolster the domestic economy with its $37-billion annual procurement budget. 

Under the federal government’s normal procurement process, bidders are awarded points based on price and other criteria. The company with the most points typically wins the contract.

The policy launched in December let the government grant extra points to Canadian firms bidding on contracts valued at $25 million or more. Ottawa awarded 14 deals worth $726 million under the policy, a fraction of the overall $2.9 billion the Procurement Department spent on contracts worth more than $25 million during that time frame.

Within the cohort that fell under Buy Canadian, more than half of the contracts went to foreign-owned pharmaceutical companies, including France’s Sanofi and U.S.-based Pfizer, to purchase vaccines.

An Italian civil engineering and construction firm, Webuild, received a contract as part of a consortium to design and build a replacement for the Alexandra Bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau, Que. French logistics company CEVA Air & Ocean won a bid to offer freight forwarding services.

The government did not release the value of the individual agreements and has not yet published most of the information on its public database, so it’s not possible to say which companies were in line for the most public dollars.

Only four went to Canadian-headquartered firms: Lake Louise Ski Resort won a contract to run a public shuttle service in Banff National Park, while Ottawa hired the Dev Hotel & Conference Centre in Cornwall, Ont. to house and feed as many as 100 trainees of the military’s cyber operations unit for a year.

The government tapped Inuit-owned Arctic Fresh Projects for an apartment development in Nunavut, and GIP Paving of Markham, Ont., to work on the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge over the Ottawa River. 

“If this is the start we’re off to, I think there’s reason for us to think that we could be doing things better,” said Laurent Carbonneau, vice-president of policy at the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), who was struck by how few of the companies that received contracts under the policy had head offices in the country.

Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound launched the Buy Canadian policy to protect Canadian industries facing uncertainty and economic turmoil due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats. To qualify, firms must have a presence in Canada, but do not need to be owned or headquartered in the country.

In June the government expanded the program to apply to all contracts valued at $5 million or more. 

By defining suppliers by their economic presence rather than their ownership, the policy brings in investment, jobs and economic activity into the country, Lightbound’s spokesperson, Victor Kandasamy, said in a statement. 

“These early results demonstrate how federal procurement is being used to help create a strong Canadian supply chain by prioritizing Canadian suppliers and Canadian-made goods and services whenever possible,” he said. 

Carbonneau said the program demands a fine balance. Making it more exclusionary could create new problems, not least reprisal from countries pushing back against the protectionist policy. Still, CCI has urged the government to look at other factors that specifically benefit Canada’s economy. 

“We would like the Buy Canadian policy to be, at the end of the day, targeted on what matters,” said Carbonneau. He argued that criteria should be aimed at helping Canadian companies grow and scale, including research and development investments.

He also said the policy should apply broadly. It was not immediately clear why only 25 per cent of contracts were awarded under the Buy Canadian policy. Now that the policy has been expanded to smaller contracts, the government expects a fivefold increase in the number of procurements that prioritize firms in Canada.