$4,350 vs $5,200,000,000
One veteran. Two graphics cards. The entire government analyzed.
Here's the receipt.
$4,350
TENET5 — Total Cost
269 pages • 3 AI models • quantum decoder • self-maintaining
vs
$5.2B
Phoenix Pay — Still Broken
1,195,402× more expensive • still doesn't work • 290,000 employees affected
WHAT $4,350 BUYS
269
Investigation Pages
7M+
Records Analyzed
268K
Offshore Entities
3
AI Models Running
⚛
Quantum Decoder
24/7
Self-Maintaining
THE RECEIPT
$1,800
2× NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti (32 GB VRAM)
$700
Intel Arrow Lake 285K + NPU
$250
64 GB DDR5 RAM
$200
2 TB NVMe SSD
$800
Motherboard + PSU + Case + Cooling
$600
Electricity (1 year est.)
$0
GitHub Pages Hosting
$0
Cloud AI / Software Licenses
TOTAL: $4,350 CAD
THEIR SPENDING
| Program | Cost | × TENET5 | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix Pay System | $5,200,000,000 | 1,195,402× | Still broken. 290K employees affected. |
| Federal AI Strategy | $2,400,000,000 | 551,724× | Announced. Not built. |
| Shared Services Canada | $2,700,000,000/yr | 620,690× | Annual IT budget. Results: Phoenix. |
| Canada Digital Service | $80,000,000/yr | 18,391× | Digital transformation. Still on paper. |
| ArriveCAN | $59,500,000 | 13,678× | COVID questionnaire. 76% no work done. |
| Rideau Hall Barn | $8,000,000 | 1,839× | A barn. At the Governor General's. |
| Signal Hill Fence | $65,000 | 15× | Stood for 7 days. |
| TENET5 | $4,350 | 1× | 269 pages. Quantum AI. Self-maintaining. Running now. |
THE POINT
If one disabled veteran with two graphics cards can analyze the entire government for $4,350, what exactly are they spending billions on?
The answer is not technology. The answer is contracts. Contracts to consultants who subcontract to other consultants who deliver systems that don't work. The procurement system is the product. The spending is the feature.
And when someone builds the actual thing for the price of a used car, it exposes the entire machinery as a fraud.
The answer is not technology. The answer is contracts. Contracts to consultants who subcontract to other consultants who deliver systems that don't work. The procurement system is the product. The spending is the feature.
And when someone builds the actual thing for the price of a used car, it exposes the entire machinery as a fraud.
SOURCES
Phoenix Pay: Auditor General, Parliamentary Budget Office • ArriveCAN: AG Performance Audit 2024 • AI Strategy: Budget 2024 • SSC: Main Estimates • CDS: TBS Annual Reports • Signal Hill: AG Report • Rideau Hall: NCC Financial Statements • TENET5: actual purchase receipts