On Feb. 20, Shared Services Canada sent an urgent order to Bell Mobility for about 31,000 smartphones, with delivery required within five weeks in order to qualify as 2017-2018 expenditures. Normally, Shared Services Canada – the government's IT agency – would order the equipment and pay the bill itself, charging back the amounts to individual departments. CBC News obtained the memo and other information about the bulk purchase through the Access to Information Act. Shared Services Canada says the bulk order was partly intended to replace BlackBerrys, which are being phased out across government. Shared Services Canada supports about 230,000 cellular devices, so the March order represents almost 15 per cent of inventory.

Source: CBC News April 26, 2018 08:01 UTC