Agency 2026 - Ottawa
(Live stream details to be shared closer to the event, we will have a virtual link available for remote participants.)
(We have space for up to 90 hackathon participants in person, with virtual participation available for everyone else. Confirmed in-person participants will be notified directly. The remote link will be available for everyone.)
NEW! Agency 2026 Ottawa — Lunch & Learn Info-Session (Wednesday, April 22nd, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM MST)
A 60-minute virtual session for anyone attending, considering, or curious about Agency 2026 Ottawa on April 29. Walk through the 10 challenges, the tools and datasets you'll have access to, how teams are formed, and what a winning build looks like. Bring questions.
Link to join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/29807076414465?p=U0SPfwIQuI4duJ6XUL
Agency 2026 – Ottawa is a one-day AI hackathon bringing together public sector leaders, industry, and innovators to explore new approaches to social spending and accountability.
Participants will use modern AI tools and emerging agentic technologies to develop solutions to a live challenge focused on improving transparency, insights, and outcomes in government.
The event is designed to:
Showcase what’s possible with applied AI in government
Encourage new ideas and approaches to complex public challenges
Provide a platform for teams to build, demonstrate, and share their work
Strengthen collaboration across jurisdictions, sectors, and disciplines
Teams will present their work at the end of the day, with selected participants recognized through awards. The event will bring together hyperscalers and leading AI companies, alongside the Minister of Alberta Technology and Innovation and federal, provincial, and territorial ministers and deputy ministers.
What to Bring
To get the most out of the day identify a team of 3-5. Participants should come ready to build and prepared with:
A laptop (HDMI-compatible) and charger
Access to your preferred AI tools or accounts (e.g., API access, development environments)
Any software or setup you typically use for rapid prototyping
Headphones (optional, for focused work)
We will provide access to datasets and supporting resources during the event.
Participation is limited. Additional details will be shared with confirmed attendees at the event.
Challenges
1. Zombie Recipients
Which companies and nonprofits received large amounts of public funding and then ceased operations shortly after? Identify entities that went bankrupt, dissolved, or stopped filing within 12 months of receiving funding. Flag entities where public funding makes up more than 70-80% of total revenue, meaning they likely could not survive without it. The question is simple: did the public get anything for its money, or did it fund a disappearing act?
2. Ghost Capacity
Which funded organizations show no evidence of actually being able to deliver what they were funded to do? Look for entities with no employees, no physical presence, and no revenue beyond government transfers, where expenditures flow almost entirely to compensation for a small number of individuals or to further transfers to other entities. These are not zombies. Zombies die. Ghost-capacity entities persist indefinitely. They just never do anything.
3. Funding Loops
Where does money flow in circles between charities, and does it matter? Using CRA T3010 data, identify circular funding patterns: reciprocal gifts, triangular cycles, and longer chains where dollars leave an organization and eventually return to it. Most loops are structurally normal (denominational hierarchies, federated charities, donation platforms). The challenge is distinguishing these from loops that exist to inflate revenue, generate tax receipts, or absorb funds into overhead without delivering charitable programs.
4. Sole Source and Amendment Creep
Which contracts started small and competitive but grew large through sole-source amendments? Identify patterns where the amended value of a contract dwarfs the original bid, where contracts are split just below competitive thresholds, or where the same vendor wins the initial competition and then receives ongoing sole-source work. The goal is to surface procurement relationships that may have quietly outgrown their original justification.
5. Vendor Concentration
In any given category of government spending, how many vendors are actually competing? Identify areas where a single supplier or a small group of suppliers receives a disproportionate share of contracts. Measure concentration by category, department, and region. Where has incumbency replaced competition? Where has government become dependent on a vendor it can no longer walk away from?
6. Related Parties and Governance Networks
Who controls the entities that receive public money, and do they also control each other? Cross-reference directors from CRA T3010 filings with corporate registries and contract data. Identify individuals who sit on multiple boards of organizations that fund each other, principals of companies receiving contracts who are also directors of charities receiving grants, and former public servants connected to entities funded by their former departments.
7. Policy Misalignment
Is the money going where the government says its priorities are? Pick specific, measurable policy commitments (emissions targets, housing starts, reconciliation spending, healthcare capacity) and compare them to the actual flow of funds. The challenge is not abstract. It is concrete: does the spending pattern match the stated plan, and where are the biggest gaps between rhetoric and allocation?
8. Duplicative Funding (and Funding Gaps)
Which organizations are being funded by multiple levels of government for the same purpose, potentially without those governments knowing about each other? The flip side is equally important: where do all levels of government claim to prioritize something, yet none of them are actually funding it? Duplication catches waste. Gaps catch failure.
9. Contract Intelligence
What is Canada actually buying, and is it paying more over time? Identify which categories of procurement have seen the fastest cost growth, and decompose whether that growth comes from volume, unit cost, or vendor concentration. Surface the contracts and categories where taxpayers are getting less for more.
10. Adverse Media
Which organizations receiving public funding are the subject of serious adverse media coverage? This means regulatory enforcement actions, fraud allegations, safety incidents, criminal investigations, and sanctions. Not political controversy, not critical op-eds. The challenge is precision: build a system that distinguishes genuine red-flag reporting from noise, and match it against the funding data to identify recipients whose public record should concern a funder.
Hackathon Information for Vendors
Purpose: To provide context on the event and outline how vendors can participate and prepare.
Event Overview
This is a national, invite-only AI hackathon hosted by the Government of Alberta, focused on practical applications of AI in government delivery and accountability
The event will run as two parallel experiences:
Hackathon teams building solutions in real time
Live industry demos and presentations for attendees
Industry demos and hacking will occur simultaneously, with participants and senior officials moving between both
Audience
The event will include:
Federal and provincial government leaders (including Ministers and Deputy Ministers)
Senior public sector officials
Academic participants and students
Industry representatives
Demos should therefore be accessible, practical, and relevant to public-sector use cases
Expectations for Demos
Focus on applied, hands-on use of AI, particularly agentic or autonomous systems
Demonstrate how your technology can help governments:
Analyze data
Improve decision-making
Identify inefficiencies or outcomes
Design demos to be:
Interactive and engaging
Easy to understand in a short timeframe
Relevant to real-world government challenges
Note: This is not a traditional showcase. The emphasis is on collaboration and experimentation, not polished sales presentations.
Vendor Role: Supporting the Hackathon
We are looking for vendors who can contribute to the hackathon environment by enabling participants to build and test solutions in real time.
This may include:
Providing APIs, datasets, or AI models that participants can access and use
Offering platforms or development environments (e.g., cloud, agent frameworks, orchestration tools) to support rapid prototyping
Supplying pre-built applications, accelerators, or starter kits that teams can build on or extend
Making available sandbox environments, credits, or pre-configured access to reduce setup time
Offering technical support or subject-matter guidance to teams using your tools
Vendors should ensure their tools and services are:
Easy to access and use within a one-day hackathon
Low-friction to onboard
Relevant to real-world problem solving