Federal government launches Digital Transformation Canada with former Google executive Patrick Pichette

The federal government is creating Digital Transformation Canada, a new agency led by former Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette, to modernize public services and support Canadian technology companies.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the agency September 3, placing it under the purview of Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound. Pichette, who served as Google's CFO from 2008 to 2015 and previously worked at Bell Canada, McKinsey, and Sprint Canada, will lead efforts to equip public servants with emerging tools and use government purchasing power to help Canadian digital and AI companies test, scale, and commercialize new technologies.

Carney said: "Canada's future prosperity will be built by those who innovate, adopt new technologies, and move quickly to seize new opportunities. Digital Transformation Canada will ensure the federal government leads by example."

Pichette has been assigned three priorities: scale shared solutions across government by reducing operating costs, improving AI use, strengthening digital sovereignty, and improving service delivery to Canadians; equip public servants with more modern, secure tools to reduce administrative burden and improve efficiency; and strategically use government purchasing power to help Canadian technology companies scale and commercialize.

Carney will use the agency to bring private-sector expertise into government through a fellowship model focused on knowledge transfer and building the public service's capacity to evaluate, procure, and deploy new technologies responsibly. Digital Transformation Canada is the latest in several organizations Carney has created outside longstanding departments and led by people who are not career bureaucrats, aimed at remaking the public service into a more productive, results-focused digital operation.

The announcement comes as most federal departments and agencies slash operational budgets by billions, with most looking to cut up to 15 per cent of operating costs. Thousands of federal public servants are exiting the bureaucracy while the government increases AI deployment.