Was it Prime Minister Mark Carney or was it AI?
That’s a question thousands of Canadians who receive a letter back from Canada’s prime minister may be asking in the not-too-distant future as the government contemplates a plan to replace some of the people who handle his correspondence with new technology like artificial intelligence.
In its most recent departmental planning report, the Privy Council Office (PCO) says it intends to reduce its spending by $64.6 million over the next three years.
Among the steps it plans to take are “flattening the executive structure, automating Prime Minister correspondence from the public, modernizing Governor in Council appointments and Cabinet document systems, and digitizing routine messenger services.”
Workforce adjustment letters sent to employees in the executive correspondence services unit, which handles the prime minister’s mail, say their jobs risk being impacted by technology.
“As new technologies, including artificial intelligence, present us with opportunities to streamline the work of Executive Correspondence Services, we will be carefully considering how best to integrate these advancements into our systems and work,” the PCO wrote.
Alex Silas, national executive vice-president with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, says the government has not told the union how many of the 39 correspondence officer and analyst positions it plans to cut. He said under the workforce adjustment system it could take up to a year for those employees to learn their fate.
“When Canadians write to the Prime Minister’s Office or when the Prime Minister’s Office issues a communication, that correspondence should be prepared by a human being, not by AI,” said Silas.
“I think the Carney government is really rushing towards AI without considering the negative impacts on jobs, on services to Canadians, on the environment and on protection of information.”
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The Privy Council Office, however, is downplaying the prospect of immediately replacing the people who handle prime ministerial correspondence with artificial intelligence.
“While new technologies, including artificial intelligence, present us with opportunities to streamline the unit’s work, there are no immediate plans to implement AI or similar type of automation for reviewing or drafting of the correspondence,” wrote spokesperson Pierre-Alain Bujold in an e-mailed response. “The Department Plan refers to a three-year horizon.”
The PCO did not respond to questions about what kind of AI system could be used, where in the world the data would be stored, how it will ensure data sovereignty or how it plans to ensure there is no bias in the algorithm used to automate the handling of the prime minister’s correspondence, saying only that “further details will follow in due course.”
Nor would it say how many of the correspondence jobs could eventually be replaced by AI, or when employees who have received notices that their jobs are in jeopardy will be told what will happen to them.
The handling of correspondence to Canada’s prime ministers has evolved over the years since the days when John Diefenbaker used to insist on reading all of the letters Canadians sent him, and was known to carry them around in his pocket. Lester Pearson was also an avid reader of the correspondence he received, often using a letter from a Canadian to illustrate a point or back up an argument.
Since 2016, the number of e-mails and old-fashioned paper letters addressed to the prime minister has ranged between 1.5 million and 3.3 million a year. The correspondence unit drafts thousands of responses each year, from 72,805 in 2024-25 to 196,697 in 2020-21.
As of late March, the office had received 1.5 million e-mails or webform message for Carney this fiscal year, and 115,302 letters in 2025/26. Overall, it sent out 100,588 replies.
The PCO says that on average, 24,000 pieces of correspondence a year make it to the prime minister’s office. It did not say how many of those actually reach his desk.
Messages from Canadians to the prime minister vary widely, from expressing opinions on important issues or recounting problems with government services to inviting the prime minister to attend a wedding, a high school prom or to grab a beer when he’s in town.
In some cases, the letter-writers are having the worst day of their lives or are desperately seeking help from the government.
The PCO says that in 2023, it introduced a new IT system to help manage correspondence, but that all correspondence is reviewed by staff before any action is taken.
Michael Wernick, former clerk of the Privy Council, said the volume of correspondence is high and the way it is handled can vary.
“Some was deemed VIP and got concierge handling, and a lot was routine and delegated to front-line staff,” he said.
Wernick said correspondence is “an ideal task for AI assistance,” and the more the technology is used, the better it will get.
“They will need some sort of quality control and editorial function,” he said. “But it is not like the first drafts produced by human staff were perfect. All in all, it is likely that AI-assisted responses will be faster, more accurate and more multilingual.”
It will also enable “more accurate pattern recognition and spot the letter-writing campaigns and bot-generated AI slop,” he said.
Florian Martin-Bariteau, director of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society, said AI can improve the handling of some jobs, but also has its limitations.
“They’re very good at some specific tasks,” he said. “But when it’s to interact with human beings, to understand the nuances of a language … you need to make sure that the system will understand everything, will understand sarcasm, will maybe understand some regional specificities.”
Martin-Bariteau said the government should first pilot any proposed AI tool and should also give some consideration to which tool it chooses, pointing out that most of the big AI vendors are American.
“It also raises some concern about data sovereignty, but also the sovereignty of Canada if basically one of the big U.S. tech companies who have been siding with the Trump administration is in charge of developing, deploying the tool that will manage the correspondence of the prime minister.”
Whichever system they choose, they have to get it right, he said.
“I think it’s great to think about this, but I would say that the government cannot make a mistake there because it’s so important for Canadians and the public in general to be able to interact with the Prime Minister’s Office.”
