Federal government public administration

The RCMP, the federal courts and the Correctional Service of Canada. 868 establishments, only 15% with fewer than ten employees and 73 with a hundred or more [A] — detachments, courthouses and institutions, not firms. This is a buyer, not a market to enter: the activity is a function of government, carried out under statute by public servants, and no licence, acquisition or amount of capital lets a private entrant perform it. What is sold to it is substantial and specialised: records and case management, digital evidence, body-worn cameras, inmate-management and court-scheduling systems, plus fleet, uniforms and facilities. The justice side is screened from the software angle at 912110, which found multi-year procurement and incumbents protected by their integration into police and corrections records. Security clearance of staff and of facilities is a further gate; the 9111 record screens the compliance software built around it, though on the US certification regime rather than the Canadian one. The cut factor is recorded as entry cost and regulatory drag because that is the nearest the screening model comes to 'not available to private parties' — the barrier is not high, it is absolute, and everything interesting is in what gets sold across it.

Employment and Social Development Canada's service delivery and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: 30 establishments, 11 of them employing a hundred or more [A]. Two departments, in other words. This is a buyer, not a market to enter: the activity is a function of government, carried out under statute by public servants, and no licence, acquisition or amount of capital lets a private entrant perform it. The adjacent private markets are real and sit outside this code — regulated immigration consultants and lawyers (5411), settlement agencies funded by contribution agreements (6241), and employment-services contractors (5613). Selling technology to the departments themselves means competing for a small number of very large, multi-year transformation contracts that go to global integrators. The cut factor is recorded as entry cost and regulatory drag because that is the nearest the screening model comes to 'not available to private parties' — the barrier is not high, it is absolute, and everything interesting is in what gets sold across it.

Global Affairs Canada and its missions: 12 establishments, half of them employing a hundred or more [A]. This is a buyer, not a market to enter: the activity is a function of government, carried out under statute by public servants, and no licence, acquisition or amount of capital lets a private entrant perform it. The enterable activity is downstream of the aid budget rather than inside the department — implementing organisations, development consultancies and evaluators that win contribution agreements and contracts. That is a specialised professional-services business with its own incumbents, long qualification histories and a single dominant funder whose priorities move with each government. The cut factor is recorded as entry cost and regulatory drag because that is the nearest the screening model comes to 'not available to private parties' — the barrier is not high, it is absolute, and everything interesting is in what gets sold across it.

The residual for federal departments and agencies not classified elsewhere — 244 establishments, 85 employing a hundred or more [A]. Central agencies, regulators, and the administrative core of government. This is a buyer, not a market to enter: the activity is a function of government, carried out under statute by public servants, and no licence, acquisition or amount of capital lets a private entrant perform it. Federal procurement is the market, and it has rules of its own: standing offers and supply arrangements that must be qualified for before any bid, security clearances, and set-asides. The Government of Canada awarded $66.9 billion in contracts for goods, services and construction in 2024–25 [A] — a large buyer, but one reached through those lists rather than around them. The 9111 record screens the compliance software that grew up around requirements of this kind, though on the US certification regime rather than the Canadian one. The cut factor is recorded as entry cost and regulatory drag because that is the nearest the screening model comes to 'not available to private parties' — the barrier is not high, it is absolute, and everything interesting is in what gets sold across it.