Feds spent $4.8M on Microsoft licenses that government employees didn’t even use: CTF

Government records reviewed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) show that the federal government spent at least $4.8 million last year on more than 53,000 Microsoft subscriptions and licences that went unused by government employees.

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The information came from a question submitted on March 11 in the House of Commons by Adam Chambers, Conservative Member of Parliament for Simcoe North in Ontario. He asked for the total number of Microsoft licenses paid for by the government; their cost; how many users are able to access Microsoft products through them; and how many were unused. The response was tabled in the House on April 27. National Post has reached out to Chambers for more information.

In total, last year the government of Canada spent $4.8 million purchasing 33,213 Microsoft licenses that nobody used. However, it purchased another 19,860 unused licences without disclosing how much it spent on them.

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“It’s more than $4.8 million,” Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director, told National Post. “The 4.8 million is just for the 33,000 licenses and subscriptions that nobody uses. But there’s another almost 20,000 subscriptions that nobody uses, that the government just refuses to say how much is spent on those. So not only are they wasting money on subscriptions nobody’s using, they’re also refusing to tell taxpayers how much of our money they’re wasting.”

Assuming a price of $144.52 per licence based on the first group, the additional licenses would have cost another $2.87 million, for a total of $7.67 million.

Terrazzano said it took the CTF some time to pore through the data, which arrived separately from numerous government agencies and departments , but the takeaway is simple.

“It just seems like the most basic step,” he said. “If you’re an individual or a family and you need to find some savings in your own budget, I’m sure many Canadians have done this. Like, where can we cancel some unused subscriptions? So just finding that there are more than 50,000 Microsoft licenses and subscriptions that the government isn’t using, that seems like the first place that they should be cutting back.”

He added: “The government says it’s looking for savings, so cancelling subscriptions that nobody’s using seems like the most basic step to take to find those savings for taxpayers.”

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reported the highest number of unused licenses. It purchased 7,443 that nobody used, costing taxpayers $138,500.

Employment and Social Development Canada spent $68,940 on 150 Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro subscriptions last year but did not use any of these subscriptions, and did not respond to the CTF’s request for an explanation.

The Canada Revenue Agency bought 4,588 unused subscriptions. It did not disclose how much those subscriptions cost, nor did it respond to the CTF’s request for explanation.

National Defence didn’t disclose what type of subscriptions it purchased. Transport Canada didn’t say how many of its licenses were unused. Neither department responded to CTF’s request for an explanation.

Statistics Canada spent the most on unused subscriptions, shelling out almost $1.2 million on 2,608 subscriptions that nobody used. It also spent $1,746 on 25 Teams Phone Standard subscriptions for a pilot project but didn’t use any of them.

The CTF said that when it asked the agency why, a Statistics Canada spokesperson told them: “Technical challenges were encountered.”

“Well, ‘technical challenges’ isn’t an excuse to waste taxpayers’ money,” said Terrazzano. “A couple of other agencies, we reached out to and they just refused to to respond back or disclose certain information. So along with the the hefty price tag for all these unused subscriptions, there’s also a lack-of-transparency issue here.”

This is not the first time the CTF has called out governments for overspending on unused software licences. In December 2024, it noted that the city of Toronto had spent $11 million on unused licences over the previous five years, including almost $8 million on Microsoft licenses. Among the findings was news that the city bought 10,000 licenses for Microsoft 365 in 2021 even though its network was only able to handle 6,000 users.

“If bureaucrats blew millions on unused Microsoft 365 licenses, there’s no telling what kind of other wasteful spending taxpayers are on the hook for,” CTF Ontario Director Jay Goldberg said at the time.

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