What Digital Transformation Canada can set in motion, and what Team Canada still needs to build

The creation of Digital Transformation Canada, announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney on 3 September 2026, gives the federal government a long-awaited instrument to modernize its administration. Its perimeter, however, remains that of the federal apparatus, while the problems that matter most to citizens, workers and businesses cross-jurisdictional boundaries. This reflection paper argues that a federal transformation that succeeds, but proceeds alone, risks hardening boundaries within Canada's public sector rather than reducing them: data standards, identifiers and procurement vehicles settled without the provinces and territories become de facto standards through sheer relative weight. The missing piece is not a technology but a governance capacity. Federal-provincial-territorial public sector data interoperability is presented as the enabling infrastructure on which national-interest projects already depend. The authors distinguish two complementary engines, one operational and federal, the other political and vested in Team Canada, and propose four immediate actions.