Canada’s unveils AI strategy with plans for ‘large

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon on Thursday unveiled Canada’s new AI strategy, which includes proposals for the building of “large-scale” data centres, restrictions on controversial surveillance pricing, and a plan to ramp up use across industry, government and individuals.

“Artificial intelligence, the defining technology of our era, is here,” Carney said.

Five key sectors of the economy were identified as targets for expanding AI adoption. These are health and life sciences, energy and natural resources, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing and robotics.

The strategy proposes treating Canadian data held across a range of these and other sectors as a “strategic national asset’ for use by AI innovators as part of a push to increase development and innovation, as well.

The new AI strategy outlines six “pillars” or areas of focus, with the first pillar of the strategy aimed at “protecting Canadians and safeguarding democracy.”

“Canada will introduce online safety laws to protect Canadians in the digital age, ensuring citizens, children, and customers are safeguarded,” the AI strategy says.

The federal government said it will modernize privacy and online safety laws to catch up to AI-powered harms such as deepfakes and synthetic media, the document says, adding that it will also put in place measures to protect Canadians against AI-generated disinformation that can affect elections, public discourse and trust in institutions.

Canada will table consumer privacy legislation that “ensures AI systems safeguard children’s information from exploitation and harm,” Carney said, adding that Ottawa will make “the development of child safety standards a priority” at this month’s G7 summit.

“Under our strategy, the government will introduce new legislation, regulations and standards to protect your data, your privacy, your children,” Carney said.

Canada’s privacy laws will be updated to “ensure that Canadians’ personal information is not used inappropriately, including for surveillance pricing,” the document says.

Ottawa will also spend $50 million to “expand the capabilities of the Canadian AI Safety Institute” to study the emerging risks and dangers of AI as well as work to strengthen Canadian cybersecurity to protect critical systems from cyber-attacks from advanced AI systems.

The AI document identified a lack of trust in AI among Canadians as a key barrier to adoption. To address that, the federal government will create a “Canada Trusted AI Certification” program, that will identify “trustworthy AI products in the marketplace.”

During a technical briefing held by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), officials were repeatedly asked whether the federal government had an estimate for how many jobs would be lost in the process of AI adoption, and they did not answer.

The AI strategy projects there will be 250,000 new jobs through the adoption of AI by 2031, noting the government commits to 90,000 “AI-related jobs and work placement opportunities for young Canadians to start their careers and support SMEs and nonprofits” by that time.

In February, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem warned that AI adoption may already be reducing the number of entry-level jobs available to young people in Canada.

The AI strategy does not provide an estimate for how many jobs would be lost because of AI adoption or the scale of the layoffs, but it lays out a “National AI Literacy Initiative” to offer entry-level AI training for all Canadians.

Ottawa’s AI literacy content will also be delivered to post-secondary students, with “more than 3,000 educators with AI learning kits in their classrooms.”

The federal government will also offer training and upskilling programs for mid-career workers and “assess the societal, labour market, and economic impacts of AI,” the document says.

Canada has a “major adoption gap” when it comes to AI, with only 12 per cent of Canadian businesses using AI between mid-2024 and mid-2025, the document said.

The AI strategy aims to bring this up to 60 per cent by 2034, with a focus on helping micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) adopt AI.

This includes a $500 million spending package from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to “help Canadian SMEs access financing to incorporate AI tools in their operations.”

This will be done through the BDC’s Lead with Innovation and Focus on Technology, or LIFT, program. The AI strategy also lays out the development of a “AI Literacy and Adoption Assessment tool” that will help small business assess their AI-readiness and needs.

According to a recent report from the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, three U.S. tech firms – Amazon, Microsoft and Google – own 85 per cent of public cloud market share in Canada.

The federal government is looking build a “sovereign AI foundation” in Canada. This includes the building of a “world-leading public supercomputer” in Canada and the construction of large‑scale AI data centres “that can scale to at least 100 megawatts.”

The AI strategy says these “partnerships are being finalized” with an aim to providing 850 MW of computing capacity by 2030.

“Sovereign AI starts with sovereign infrastructure. Canada needs domestic data centre capacity and cloud services,” the document says.

“AI is only as powerful as the data it can access,” the document says, adding that “enormous volumes of valuable data across health, energy, transportation, agriculture, natural resources, and other critical sectors” is “precisely the kinds of assets that AI capabilities increasingly depend on.”

However, it said the data is “siloed” and the federal government will spend $100 million on standardizing disparate health information data sets.

The federal government will add $500 million to the Canadian Tech Growth Fund to help AI startups access capital needed to scale up.

“This will help them attract private capital, compete globally, retain talent and intellectual property, and remain anchored in Canada,” it said.

While the document does not clarify whether this “private capital” will be Canadian or foreign investment, it adds that Canada will “leverage” its new Sovereign Wealth Fund “where appropriate.”

It added that the federal government will help domestic AI start ups “export their solutions globally.”

The federal government aims to “attract FDI” or foreign direct investment in Canada’s AI sector, the document says.

“Canada will expand the newly formed Sovereign Technology Alliance to enable secure and interoperable AI capabilities and open procurement opportunities for domestic champions,” it adds