You're asking (passionately) for a government which is capable of actually doing big things with urgency, doing those things transparently and fairly, and being accountable for the actual progress made.
That is NOT this government.
THIS government is focused on selling Canadians on a Utopian future which is somehow always just around the corner, a government which invariably structures whatever programs it introduces in such a way as to ensure that its friends prosper, and a government which would not recognize accountability if it walked up and bit them on the nose.
Very enlightening article Al. Your strategy for the Feds and AI makes good sense to an admittedly low information person. Wish you and your company best success is this very necessary AI journey. Let’s hope we as a country figure this shit out and do what is right instead of playing the usual political games to the detriment of Canada
Kudos to The Line for publishing this, and Al Vigier for writing it.
The thought that the Canadian government ("Pentagon North", a.k.a. DND in particular) should be "quietly" supporting Palantir and, by extension, the ideology peddled by the company's principal and founder, Peter Thiel, is disturbing, to say the least.
Not one comment yet about whether the Canadian vendors can actually meet the mission needs. “Buy Canadian” works up until you end up with substandard crap for the boys on the front line. Happened with rifles in WW1 (they were replaced with British-made ones when troops started dying in the trenches), happened in the early days of our national nuclear programme in 1940-1942 with Canadian graphite not being nearly high-purity enough (we had to beg the Americans to send us some of theirs until we pivoted to heavy water moderator which became a distinctive Canadian technology).
Palantir has thousands of employees and a decade long head start. Are we willing to accept massively lower capabilities to protect sovereignty? I think the answer should be yes but ONLY if we have the sustained focus to build up sovereign capabilities and switch to those, like we did with heavy water.
If we MUST buy outside our own borders, the United States at this time is among the last sources I would be comfortable to see involved in our defense capability. This is not well thought out and reflects poorly on our capacity for strategic decision making. Is anyone awake at the switch?
Even if a contract is signed, it could be canceled for convenience at any time. Heck, it isn't unheard of to cancel contracts for the lowest bidder and then hand the same work to a much better connected loser, single source of course.
There is a reason why Big 6 banks in Canada don't treat federal contracts as real until an invoice is sent out.
This isn't the way procurement works in peer nations.
💯 I sincerely hope someone with the power to change this ‘strategy’ reads this and heeds it. And the PBO and auditor general as well. Opposition critics of all three parties PLEASE take note and hold this government’s feet to the fire. We can’t afford to screw this up.
I can think of nothing more troubling than government getting its unserious hands on this technology. Why ... they will be telling us who gets to use it! How cool is that?
You're asking (passionately) for a government which is capable of actually doing big things with urgency, doing those things transparently and fairly, and being accountable for the actual progress made.
That is NOT this government.
THIS government is focused on selling Canadians on a Utopian future which is somehow always just around the corner, a government which invariably structures whatever programs it introduces in such a way as to ensure that its friends prosper, and a government which would not recognize accountability if it walked up and bit them on the nose.
Big ask, is what I'm saying.
Very enlightening article Al. Your strategy for the Feds and AI makes good sense to an admittedly low information person. Wish you and your company best success is this very necessary AI journey. Let’s hope we as a country figure this shit out and do what is right instead of playing the usual political games to the detriment of Canada
Kudos to The Line for publishing this, and Al Vigier for writing it.
The thought that the Canadian government ("Pentagon North", a.k.a. DND in particular) should be "quietly" supporting Palantir and, by extension, the ideology peddled by the company's principal and founder, Peter Thiel, is disturbing, to say the least.
Not one comment yet about whether the Canadian vendors can actually meet the mission needs. “Buy Canadian” works up until you end up with substandard crap for the boys on the front line. Happened with rifles in WW1 (they were replaced with British-made ones when troops started dying in the trenches), happened in the early days of our national nuclear programme in 1940-1942 with Canadian graphite not being nearly high-purity enough (we had to beg the Americans to send us some of theirs until we pivoted to heavy water moderator which became a distinctive Canadian technology).
Palantir has thousands of employees and a decade long head start. Are we willing to accept massively lower capabilities to protect sovereignty? I think the answer should be yes but ONLY if we have the sustained focus to build up sovereign capabilities and switch to those, like we did with heavy water.
If we MUST buy outside our own borders, the United States at this time is among the last sources I would be comfortable to see involved in our defense capability. This is not well thought out and reflects poorly on our capacity for strategic decision making. Is anyone awake at the switch?
Even if a contract is signed, it could be canceled for convenience at any time. Heck, it isn't unheard of to cancel contracts for the lowest bidder and then hand the same work to a much better connected loser, single source of course.
There is a reason why Big 6 banks in Canada don't treat federal contracts as real until an invoice is sent out.
This isn't the way procurement works in peer nations.
💯 I sincerely hope someone with the power to change this ‘strategy’ reads this and heeds it. And the PBO and auditor general as well. Opposition critics of all three parties PLEASE take note and hold this government’s feet to the fire. We can’t afford to screw this up.
I can think of nothing more troubling than government getting its unserious hands on this technology. Why ... they will be telling us who gets to use it! How cool is that?
Is Pierre Poilievre aware of this.
Another instance of a case where government does not need to be poking its bureaucratic nose.