The Canada Brief

Canada · 13 d ago

Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington

Jonathan Schilling · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Ottawa paid $4.8 million for Microsoft licences nobody used

Unused Microsoft licences paid for last year

33,213 licences

Federal departments paid $4.8 million last year for 33,213 Microsoft licences that no employee used, according to government records reviewed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The figures answer a question in the House of Commons from Conservative MP Adam Chambers, tabled on Apr 27.

What we know

  • 33,213 unused licences cost $4.8 million
  • 19,860 more licences also went unused

Not yet

  • What those 19,860 licences cost

The government bought another 19,860 licences that went unused, but did not disclose what they cost.

Unused, by department

  • Statistics Canada: 2,608, almost $1.2 million
  • Agriculture and Agri-Food: 7,443, $138,500
  • Canada Revenue Agency: 4,588, cost not given
  • ESDC: 150 Teams Rooms Pro, $68,940

Statistics Canada spent the most, almost $1.2 million on 2,608 unused subscriptions, while Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada had the most unused licences, at 7,443. A Statistics Canada spokesperson said "technical challenges were encountered."

"Cancelling subscriptions that nobody's using seems like the most basic step to take to find those savings for taxpayers."

— Franco Terrazzano, Canadian Taxpayers Federation