Question Period Note: SECURING CANADA’S GLOBAL AI ADVANTAGE

What is the Government of Canada doing to secure its global advantage in artificial intelligence (AI) and to ensure this new technology is developed and used responsibly?

• Canada is seizing its AI moment. The goal is AI that works for all Canadians, developed and governed on our own terms.

• On June 4, 2026, the Government of Canada launched Canada’s new national AI strategy: AI for All. To secure our AI advantage and unleash real economic opportunity for all Canadians, the government is working to build Canada’s sovereign AI foundation, scale Canadian AI champions, empower Canadians to participate in and benefit from AI, and accelerate safe and responsible adoption.

Canada was the first country in the world to launch a national AI strategy, the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy (PCAIS), in 2017. Through Budgets 2017 and 2021, and the 2024 Fall Economic Statement, the Government has invested some $742 million in the PCAIS. A key outcome of the Strategy was the creation of three national AI institutes (NAIIs) to anchor the Canadian ecosystem: Mila in Montreal; the Vector Institute in Toronto; and, Amii in Edmonton.

Building on these initial investments, Budget 2024 outlined measures to secure Canada’s global AI advantage, including:

• $2 billion to build and provide access to compute and technological infrastructure for Canada’s world-leading AI researchers, start-ups, and scale-ups through the Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy (SCS) launched in December 2024. The Strategy is based on three pillars:

1. Grow private sector AI champions through a $700 million AI Compute Challenge.

2. Offset compute resource costs up to $300 million for Canadian innovators and businesses with the AI Compute Access Fund. On May 12, 2026, the Government announced that the first $66 million of the $300 million Fund will be allocated to support 44 SME projects in key sectors of the Canadian economy, including life sciences, health care, energy, advanced manufacturing, agriculture, finance, natural resources and transportation.

3. Build public supercomputing infrastructure for up to $1 billion to meet the needs of researchers, government, and industry. This includes funding of $705 million through the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program (SCIP) to build a state-of-the-art, Canada-owned supercomputing system; $95 million for a secure computing facility to be led by Shared Services Canada (SSC) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC); and $200 million as near-term investments in:

i. The NAIIs and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC) to expand existing compute infrastructure to address immediate needs;

ii. VITAL to establish digital infrastructure for AI computing leveraging Canadian health data; and

iii. NRC to update and expand its compute facility.

• $200 million from Canada’s Regional Development Agencies to boost AI start-ups to bring new technologies to market, and accelerating AI adoption in critical sectors;

• $100 million in the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) AI Assist Program to help small and medium-sized businesses scale up and increase productivity by building and deploying new AI solutions;

• $50 million over four years for a Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program to support workers who are impacted by AI; and

• $50 million over five years to create the Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI), to further the safe development and deployment of AI.

The 2024 Fall Economic Statement further dedicated $150 million over three years, starting in 2024-25, for the Global Innovation Clusters, and $24 million over two years, starting in 2025-26, for the National AI Institutes to support the continuation of their AI commercialization activities.

Budget 2025 signals the Government’s intent to support sovereign AI data-centre projects through memoranda of understanding with strategic partners and investments via the Canada Infrastructure Bank. To better understand, compare, and assess the opportunities, ISED issued a public call for proposals for AI data centres with total planned capacities greater than 100 megawatts, designed to serve a broad spectrum of Canadian clients and meet strong data and compute sovereignty requirements. The call for proposals closed on February 15, 2026. Over 160 proposals were submitted. In collaboration with other federal departments, Proposals are currently being evaluated against 7 criteria: economic and ecosystem benefits, sovereignty, energy considerations, indigenous participation, readiness, performance, and cost and structure.

Budget 2025 also proposes $4.5 million annually (ongoing) for Statistics Canada’s Artificial Intelligence and Technology Measurement Program, to be fully sourced from existing departmental resources. In addition, Budget 2025 proposes $925.6 million over five years to support large-scale sovereign public AI infrastructure to bolster AI compute capacity for public and private research (including $800 million already provisioned).

On June 4, 2026, the Government of Canada launched Canada’s new national AI Strategy, AI for All, which sets out six pillars to foster trust, provide Canadians with new opportunities, and safeguard Canada’s sovereignty:

1) Protecting Canadians and Safeguarding our Democracy;

2) Empowering Canadians;

3) Powering Shared Prosperity;

4) Building the Canadian Sovereign AI Foundation;

5) Scaling Canadian Champions; and
6) Building Trusted Partnerships and Global Alliances.

Canada is an international leader on AI, having co-founded with France the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) in June 2020. Since then, Canada has continued to engage actively and demonstrate its leadership in GPAI - under the integrated partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - as well as other key multilateral forums related to AI governance, such as AI Summits, G7, G20, Council of Europe’s Committee on AI, United Nations (UN), and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

In February 2026, Canada and Germany launched the Sovereign Technology Alliance to deepen collaboration between trusted allies to use common AI models, share digital infrastructure, access capital, and participate in joint research. As announced in AI for All on June 4, 2026, Canada will expand the Alliance to enable secure and interoperable AI capabilities, open procurement opportunities for domestic champions, accelerate responsible AI adoption, de-risk private-sector investment and cross-border deployment, and reduce strategic dependence on dominant technology ecosystems.

Launched in 2023, Canada’s Voluntary Code of Conduct for the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems sets out practices that organizations can implement to address risks associated with AI. The Code now counts 46 organisations as signatories. These have committed to adopting risk-mitigation measures related to the development and management of AI systems, demonstrating their commitment to safe and responsible AI. The recently released implementation guide is designed to help managers of AI systems, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), implement the Code’s measures.

The Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI) was launched in November 2024 to advance the science of AI safety through research on the capabilities and risks of advanced AI systems. CAISI conducts research in two key ways: it funds Canadian and international experts to conduct research on critical questions related to AI safety through CIFAR's CAISI Research Program and it directly conducts projects supporting the Government's priorities on AI safety through the National Research Council. AI for All will also invest an additional $50 million to CAISI to expand its capabilities in tracking emerging AI risks, advancing technical research, and conducting transparency evaluations of AI models.

Created in 2019, the Advisory Council on AI advises the Government on how to best build on Canada's strengths and global leadership in AI to create economic growth that benefits all Canadians. In March 2025, the Advisory Council's membership was refreshed to bring in new perspectives and expertise on rapidly developing topics. Its mandate was also expanded to ensure that the Council is able to provide comprehensive advice to the Government on relevant policy issues. The associated Safe and Secure AI Advisory Group focuses on providing recommendations and advice to the Government to ensure it is well informed on risks and mitigation measures. This includes advising on research priorities for CAISI.

The Government is also moving actively to leverage AI in a responsible manner to support its activities. In March 2025, the Treasury Board Secretariat released Canada’s first AI strategy for the public sector, which will serve as a blueprint for the adoption of AI in the public service in the coming years. The Government has also published a guide to help federal public servants assess the risks associated with generative AI and use it responsibly in their daily work. Budget 2025 signalled the Government’s intention to stand up an Office of Digital Transformation to identify, implement and scale technology solutions across the federal government, providing a generational opportunity for domestic innovators.

On August 19, 2025, the Government of Canada signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Cohere that provides an initial platform for the Government and Cohere to explore where AI tools can improve public services to deliver efficiency gains and improved service delivery, while securing domestic, sovereign AI capacity.

• The Government of Canada is committed to strategically accelerating the development of nation-building data and AI infrastructure in Canada.

• Canada was the first country in the world to launch a funded national AI strategy—the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy (PCAIS)—focused on advancing AI research capacity. Introduced in Budget 2017, PCAIS has invested approximately $742 million to date to strengthen Canada’s talent base and global competitiveness in AI.

• The $2 billion Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy has made strategic investments in public and commercial infrastructure to ensure that Canadian innovators, researchers, and businesses have access to compute capacity they need to secure Canada’s AI advantage.

• Through strategic investments, Canada is home to a world-class AI research ecosystem and over 3,600 firms developing AI solutions and products, supported by the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy and the Sovereign AI Compute Strategy.

• Under Canada’s new national AI strategy, AI for All, the government will provide Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises with an additional $700 million in affordable sovereign compute through an expansion of the AI Compute Access Fund.

• Strategic partnerships, like the recent memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Cohere, will enable the Government to support innovative Canadian companies and promote digital sovereignty while enabling increased efficiency and improved service delivery within the Government.

• A number of Canadian laws already apply to AI, including the Personal Information and Protection of Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the Copyright Act, the Criminal Code, and sectoral laws such as the Food and Drugs Act.

• Moving forward, a key regulatory focus of the government will be to ensure that Canadians’ data and privacy is appropriately protected. The Government of Canada will modernize our existing privacy law for the private sector by introducing new consumer privacy legislation, and introduce new online safety legislation that will protect citizens, children, and customers from digital and AI-enabled harms, holding platforms and companies accountable for how AI impacts Canadians.

• Canada will also invest $50 million to expand the capabilities of the Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI), as well as advance work on AI transparency and a Canada Trusted AI Certification program so that Canadians can make informed decisions about how they engage with AI.