Skip to content
This is NOT an official site of the Government of Canada. Click here for the official AI registry.

Helpful Places

Government of Canada – DTPR AI Register

Back to your search

AI Productivity Assistant for Government Employees

Inform · Employment & Work

What it collects

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Organizational content from Microsoft 365 services such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Outlook, accessed via Microsoft Graph within the government tenant's compliance boundary. This includes work documents, emails, and other internal files.
Run by
Patented Medicine Prices Review Board Canada (PMPRB)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization, Vendor

What it is for

InformEmployment & Work

This AI-powered assistant helps federal government employees with everyday writing tasks such as drafting documents, summarizing information, and answering general questions using content from internal Microsoft 365 services. It is used internally by staff at the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board and does not make or recommend administrative decisions about clients or the public. The system is operated by Microsoft and processes organizational data within the government tenant's compliance boundary.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Organizational content from Microsoft 365 services such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Outlook, accessed via Microsoft Graph within the government tenant's compliance boundary. This includes work documents, emails, and other internal files.

Processing

Language Models
  • A large language model (LLM) generative AI chatbot that reads, writes, and summarizes text in response to employee prompts, trained on publicly available text, licensed datasets, and human-trainer-generated data.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • Generates new text content such as document drafts, summaries, and ideas in response to employee prompts. A human employee reviews and decides whether to use the generated content.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • Understands and retrieves meaning from organizational content in Microsoft 365 services (SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook) to ground responses in the employee's working context.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • New text content such as document drafts, summaries of information, generated ideas, and answers to general questions produced for internal government employee use. This content does not constitute administrative decisions.

Run by

Patented Medicine Prices Review Board Canada (PMPRB)
  • The federal department that has deployed M365 Copilot for internal staff productivity support. It is accountable for this AI system's use within its organization.

Government of Canada AI Register — M365 Copilot

Built by

Microsoft
  • Microsoft developed and supplies M365 Copilot, the underlying generative AI technology that powers this productivity assistant.

Government of Canada AI Register — M365 Copilot

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • Outputs generated by the system are available to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board as the deploying organization, accessed by GC employees within the Microsoft 365 tenant environment.
Available to vendor
  • Microsoft, as the technology provider, may have access to data processed through the service within the bounds of its contractual and compliance agreements with the Government of Canada.

Stored

Stored on 3rd Party Cloud
  • Organizational content is stored and processed within Microsoft's cloud infrastructure, within the government tenant's compliance boundary as defined by Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 services.
  • Duration: Not specified in the register
How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyGC employees using this system have a right to know that AI is being used in their productivity tools. The register notes that AI use is currently not disclosed to users; employees seeking information about how this system works may contact the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board.
  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseEmployees interacting with this system have a right to be informed that they are using an AI tool. The register explicitly notes that AI use is not currently disclosed to users of this system, representing a gap in this right's exercise.

Risks and safeguards

  • Psychological harmRisk that employees may over-rely on AI-generated content without critical review, or that erroneous outputs could affect work quality. Mitigated by the system being advisory only — it does not make or recommend administrative decisions about clients, and human employees retain full responsibility for reviewing and acting on any output.
  • Societal & cultural harmRisk that AI-generated content may reflect biases present in training data, potentially affecting the quality or fairness of internal documents. The system is constrained to internal productivity tasks and does not affect public-facing decisions. The register notes AI use is not currently disclosed to users, which could limit awareness of this risk.