In just one fiscal year, at least a billion of taxpayer dollars went to eight recipients for Ukraine’s defence, and Ottawa says their names are a Cabinet secret.

Two years after filing an Access to Information request to find out who got paid how much, National Defence still won't say.

Every fall, the Receiver General publishes the Public Accounts of Canada, the government's official books. In the 2022–23 edition, page 355 lists "Contributions to the Ukraine Operation" under National Defence at $1,021,628,132. There's no breakdown, no footnote, and no explanation. Eight recipients are lumped into one line with their names withheld.

That same document says the Public Accounts show "the name and location of the recipient, together with the total amount paid" for payments over $100,000. Everyone else on that page is named.

For instance, NATO got $157,980,308. The Government of the Northwest Territories got $30 million, and the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society in Toronto got $3,149,572.

Elsewhere, the government withholds names mostly for private individuals like farmers, veterans and pensioners. Were eight private people really paid a billion dollars? Doubts abound.

DND's 2023–24 departmental plan says it sources lethal and non-lethal equipment for Ukraine "primarily through the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) and with international partners." It also says, "There have been no planned or completed evaluations." The plan forecast $500 million for 2022–23, and actual spending came in at more than double that, so who signed off on the difference?

So Rebel News filed a one-sentence Access to Information request asking for the recipients' names. The law gives departments 30 days to respond or to take an extension. DND did neither, so under section 10(3), it was legally deemed to have refused. That refusal stood for more than two years.

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When DND finally answered, it cited section 69, which covers Cabinet confidences. That section protects Cabinet deliberations, such as memoranda, agendas, briefings and draft legislation. Is the name of a company or government that received public money a Cabinet deliberation? The Act also generally requires departments to release whatever they reasonably can.

That wasn’t the case, so an Information Commissioner complaint is in order.

This transcends party lines.

Peace groups and Ukrainian Canadians asked Auditor General Karen Hogan to audit the $26 billion in Canadian aid sent to Ukraine since 2022.

Making the whole thing even more curious is that in later Public Accounts, the "Ukraine Operation" line disappears completely.

Instead, DND's Military Training and Cooperation Program jumped from about $7 million to $773 million in 2023–24, then to more than $1.16 billion in 2024–25. Recipient names were withheld 60 and 22 times. It’s not clear that this money went to Ukraine, but the program covers military assistance "when instructed by Cabinet."

Supporting Ukraine is one thing, and it’s largely a political debate, but knowing where your money went isn't. If a journalist, the public and the information watchdog can't trace a billion dollars, who exactly is checking?