Workday has announced a wave of new public sector customers in Canada, as cities and health institutions turn to its platform to manage their operations.
Speaking on the announcement, Jasper Fai, Enterprise Account Executive for Government at Workday, said:
“It is so great to see Workday partnering with more cities, hospitals, and universities across Canada to build an AI-powered future. We are deepening our commitment to local talent and supporting the communities that keep Canada moving forward.”
The announcement comes as Canada advances its national AI strategy and Workday expands its AI footprint in the country. The company said five new organizations have come on board, with the new customers spanning two of Canada’s most critical public sector verticals, municipal government and healthcare.
Inside the New Wins: Who’s Joining and Why
Among the new customers are the City of Kelowna and the City of Markham, prominent municipalities in British Columbia and Ontario, respectively, along with Norfolk General Hospital, Oak Valley Health, and Peterborough Regional Health Centre, three healthcare networks in Ontario.
Many of these organizations cited fragmented systems, manual workflows, and a pressing need for real-time decision-making capabilities as primary drivers behind the move to Workday.
For the City of Markham, a rapidly expanding municipality, the decision centered on the need for a platform that could keep pace with population growth. The city’s legacy ERP system had reached the end of its useful life, and leadership required a modern, AI-powered solution capable of streamlining financial oversight and improving service delivery for residents.
In Kelowna, the challenge was equally familiar: finance, HR, and payroll systems that had become too siloed and manual to support the ambitions of a data-driven city. The city selected Workday for its integrated, cloud-based architecture and its ability to give leaders faster, more reliable access to operational insights.
A Deepening Affirmation to Canada
Today’s announcement does not exist in isolation. In January, Workday announced plans to invest CAD $1 billion in its Canadian operations over the next five years, a substantial multi-year commitment that positions the company as a long-term stakeholder in Canada’s technology sector.
Carl Eschenbach, then CEO of Workday, framed the significance of that commitment at the time:
“Workday’s roots in Canada run deep, and for more than two decades, we’ve been proud to work alongside the country’s world-class technology talent.”
That investment extends beyond product and infrastructure. Workday has outlined plans to develop local tech talent, strengthen customer support capabilities on the ground, and give back to Canadian communities, including through participation in the “With Glowing Hearts” reservist registry, which recognizes and supports Canadian Armed Forces reservists in the workforce.
The public sector momentum Workday is reporting now appears to be an early, tangible expression of that commitment taking shape. The addition of five new customers across municipal government and healthcare suggests the pipeline is active and that public institutions are responding to the company’s deepened presence in the market.
This trajectory also maps closely to the direction of Canadian public policy. The federal government’s “AI for All” national AI strategy has elevated responsible AI adoption, digital skills development, and the modernization of public services to a national priority, creating conditions for enterprise platforms with strong governance credentials to gain serious traction in the public sector.
What It Means, and What Comes Next
The picture that emerges from today’s announcement is one of a company accelerating its position in a market that is clearly moving. Canada’s public sector is modernizing, and institutions are making deliberate choices about which platforms they trust to carry that transformation forward.
With new customers now live across two of the most essential public sector verticals, Workday’s Canadian story is clearly building. The combination of enterprise AI capabilities, an established public sector track record, and a billion-dollar investment commitment gives the company a compelling proposition at precisely the moment institutions need it most.
Looking ahead, the expansion of Workday’s public sector footprint in Canada is likely to continue. As more government organizations move off aging systems and into AI-enabled environments, the competitive advantage will increasingly belong to platforms that can demonstrate both technological capability and the credibility needed to inspire confidence in regulated sectors.
