Coordination Effectiveness Measurement Framework

Paper 1 was received at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat on October 23, 2025 (framing note titled "AI Implementation Governance — Predictive Framework for Federal Deployments") and October 25, 2025 (formal working paper titled "Coordination Effectiveness Measurement Framework — Predictive Framework for AI Implementation Success"), addressed to Dominic Rochon in his capacity as Chief Information Officer of Canada and Deputy Minister.

On October 24, 2025 at 7:41 AM, Rochon internally forwarded the framework within the Chief Information Officer's Branch to Burt, Beckles, and Macdonald. Macdonald replied internally at 8:58 AM stating there were:

direct links to our thinking on both coordination and measurement.

Rochon designated Macdonald as TBS contact for the file at 9:04 AM the same day.

Rochon's external reply to the author later on October 24, 2025 used the same "direct links to our thinking" language that Macdonald had used internally nine minutes earlier.

On October 27, 2025 at 7:03 AM, Rochon extended internal engagement on Paper 1 to peer Deputy Ministers Alex Benay (Associate Deputy Minister, Public Services and Procurement Canada, and former Chief Information Officer of Canada 2017–2019) and Scott Jones (President, Shared Services Canada), stating:

I read through the deck on the weekend — having had a chat about an earlier draft with Alex earlier last week.

At 7:07 AM the same morning, the exchange was forwarded to the Secretary of the Treasury Board (Bill Matthews), the Associate Secretary (Dominique Blanchard), and the Chief of Staff to the Secretary (Riley Hennessey), together with TBS CIO Branch staff. The attachment title in this internal chain — "Coordination Effectiveness Measurement Framework - TBS.pdf" — establishes that the document circulated was Paper 1.

On December 23, 2025 at 12:09 PM, Rochon stated in written reply to the author:

[TBS has] not had the opportunity to consider your work in our policy direction … [and has] not yet developed our policy approach to implementing a framework on AI measurement.

On December 24, 2025 at 3:46 PM, the author submitted four numbered clarification questions to Rochon and Schaan (with Macdonald and Rousseau on copy). The questions invoked the Treasury Board Act, the Financial Administration Act, the Department of Industry Act, and applicable ministerial-review provisions, and asked whether the paper had been reviewed in light of the fiscal risks the author said it identified. No specific response to the four numbered questions was documented before January 7, 2026.

On December 29, 2025, Rochon sent an internal email to Macdonald with Schaan (ISED) and Rousseau (ISED) on copy directing that the matter be "put to bed" and delegating response management to Macdonald "for all of us."

Between January 5 and January 7, 2026, a joint drafting chain proceeded across the two departments: Daniela Di Giacomo (TBS senior staff) to Andréa Rousseau (ISED Chief of Staff); Jonathan Macdonald as drafter; and Mark Schaan (Associate Deputy Minister, ISED) reviewed the draft and made "tiny changes" relating to StatCan's link to ISED.

On January 7, 2026 at 4:20 PM, a closure letter signed by Macdonald on behalf of TBS and ISED was issued to the author. The letter responds generically to the December 24 clarification questions through a description of the federal fiscal-responsibility framework. The letter did not specifically answer the author's question whether Paper 1 had been reviewed under the statutory framework cited in the December 24 correspondence, and declares that TBS and ISED consider the matter closed.

On January 9, 2026, the Office of the Prime Minister acknowledged the author's December 23, 2025 correspondence and referred the matter to the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry, for information and consideration. The author's detailed factual chronology and framework executive summary was submitted to the Prime Minister's Office and to Minister Joly's office on January 17, 2026.

The released records established internal circulation that was not described in the December 23 response. Whether that circulation included substantive policy consideration remains unresolved. Certain pages within the release remain withheld under sections 21 and 69 of the Access to Information Act and are subject to ongoing oversight.

OIC investigation 5826-00601 concerns the adequacy and completeness of TBS's 149-page release under section 32 of the Access to Information Act. Separately, OIC investigation 5825-04620 produced a preliminary well-founded finding on Allegation 1 (concerning an improper hold) on ISED's file A-2025-01446; that ISED file supplied the joint TBS-ISED drafting records relevant to this Record. Parallel investigations on additional TBS access files continue.