AI-Assisted Debt Relief Guidance for Canadians

Financial Services · Risk Assessment & Triage

What it collects that can identify you

Sensitive personal information

Identifiable data

Financial situation details provided by members of the public when completing the questionnaire — including information about debts, income, and financial distress — used to match their profile against historical insolvency data.

Also collects operational data, which is anonymized data.

Run by: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
Where: No fixed location
Kept: Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with: Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Your copy: You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

Financial Services

Risk Assessment & Triage

This tool uses artificial intelligence to analyse historical bankruptcy and insolvency records and compare them with information you provide about your financial situation. It identifies patterns from past insolvency filings to suggest which type of debt relief others with similar profiles have chosen. It is a decision-support tool, not an automated decision-maker — you remain in control of any choices you make.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Sensitive personal information

Identifiable data

Financial situation details provided by members of the public when completing the questionnaire — including information about debts, income, and financial distress — used to match their profile against historical insolvency data.

Operational data

Anonymized data

Historical bankruptcy and insolvency filing records from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, used as training and reference data to identify patterns in how Canadians with similar financial profiles have resolved their debt situations.

Processing

Classification & Prediction

Classical machine learning models classify a user's financial profile and predict which category of insolvency relief (e.g. bankruptcy, consumer proposal) best matches based on patterns in historical filing data from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.

What it does

Deciding (Analytical AI)

Human decides

Applies classical machine learning to classify and score financial situations against historical insolvency patterns, returning a suggested debt relief option. The system is explicitly advisory — the individual user decides what action, if any, to take.

Outputs

A recommendation or prediction

Anonymized data

A suggested debt relief option (e.g. a type of insolvency filing) tailored to the user's financial profile, based on what others with similar circumstances have historically chosen. The output is advisory only — no binding decision is made by the system.

Run by

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)

The federal department that deploys and operates the Debt Questionnaire AI system to help Canadians facing financial distress explore debt relief options.

Government of Canada AI Register — Debt Questionnaire (2526-ISED-ISDE-022)

Built by

Government of Canada

The system was developed internally by the Government of Canada, meaning the same entity acts as both developer and deployer.

Government of Canada AI Register — Debt Questionnaire (2526-ISED-ISDE-022)

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Not available to me

The register states that the system does not involve personal information (Involves personal information: N). Individual users do not have personal data stored in the system that they would need to access or correct.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

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 Be Informed of AI UseUsers are informed that artificial intelligence is in use when they interact with this tool. The AI register confirms that AI use is disclosed to users.
Right to Algorithmic TransparencyThe system's general logic — applying classical machine learning to historical insolvency data to identify patterns matching a user's financial profile — is described in the public AI register entry for this system.

Risks and safeguards

Financial & business harmIndividuals facing financial distress may rely on AI-generated suggestions as if they were professional financial or legal advice, potentially leading to suboptimal or harmful debt relief decisions.Safeguard: The system is explicitly positioned as a decision-support tool, not an automated decision-maker. Users are informed that AI is in use (AI use disclosed to users: Y), and the system is designed to help users make informed choices rather than to make decisions on their behalf.