ESDC’s IBM contract grew from $18,036 to $13.7 million on paper

A contract between Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and IBM Canada Ltd. is listed in the federal contract register with an original value of $18,035.77 and 11 amendment rows totalling $13,704,252.72, bringing the disclosed value to $13,722,288.49, about 760 times the starting figure.

The register, which departments must update for contracts over $10,000, lists contract 2BSCS13170 as dated Jan. 7, 2025, running from Dec. 11, 2024 to Dec. 10, 2034, and flags it as competitively sourced. Eleven rows, from the fourth quarter of 2024-25 to the first quarter of 2026-27, report amendments of between $46,892.93 and $4,210,759.12. The largest single row, in the fourth quarter of 2025-26, lifts the disclosed value from $7,803,166.09 to $12,013,925.21.

Oddities in the filing

Two rows in the first quarter of 2025-26 both show a contract value of $5,012,217.29, though one lists an amendment of $46,892.93 and the other $2,136,839.03. In the first quarter of 2026-27, the value falls from $13,722,288.49 to $12,062,469.21 on a row that lists a $48,544 amendment, then rises to $12,264,154.10. The register also lists zero bids for a contract it describes as competitively sourced.

These patterns do not show anything improper. Contracts of this kind often work like a standing offer, where a small guaranteed minimum is set at award and work is added through task authorizations, and the register’s own notes say the value actually spent may be lower than the value disclosed. But a reader of the public register cannot tell which of those explanations applies, or what the contract’s ceiling is.

Response

We sent ESDC five questions on Nov. 6: whether $18,035.77 is the correct original value, what the amendments represent, what the maximum value is over the contract’s term, whether the repeated and out-of-order figures reflect how amendments should be reported, and how many bids were received. ESDC did not respond by the Nov. 10, 5 p.m. ET deadline. We will update this story if it does.

How we checked

We downloaded the federal contracts over $10,000 dataset on Oct. 23, 2026, selected every row for procurement number 2BSCS13170, and added the amendment values, which reconcile to the disclosed total. We did not allege wrongdoing and did not review the contract itself, which is not public.

Edited by Harry Miller.