Carney names AI council to help Canada turn research strength into economic power

Ottawa links artificial intelligence adoption to Canadian ownership and industrial competitiveness

Canada has a new artificial intelligence council. It will advise Ottawa on expanding AI adoption, growing Canadian technology companies and gaining more control over the computing infrastructure Canada needs.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the council October 2. It will advise on the government’s AI for All strategy, launched in June. The strategy aims to make Canadian businesses more competitive while protecting Canadians and strengthening the country’s control over AI.

“Prosperity and sovereignty in the age of AI belong to nations that can build, adopt, and govern AI on their own terms,” Carney said.

Canada has strong AI research. The government wants more of that expertise turned into products, growing companies and tools Canadians use at work.

Getting businesses to use AI

Ottawa identified the problem when it announced AI for All on June 4. Canada has world-class talent, the government said, but is among the slowest countries to adopt AI at scale.

“AI is here. The question is whether it will improve the lives of all Canadians or benefit only a few,” Carney said at the June launch.

It warned that slow adoption could push Canadian researchers and startups abroad. Important parts of the country’s AI industry could also fall under foreign control.

The strategy sets targets for addressing that gap. Ottawa wants business adoption to increase from about 12 per cent to 60 per cent by 2034.

It also targets nearly $200 billion in additional economic growth and up to 250,000 new jobs through AI adoption by 2031. Those are government targets. Achieving them will depend on businesses putting the technology to work.

The plan includes free AI training and support for small and medium-sized businesses. Workers need to learn how to use the tools. Employers need to identify where those tools can improve their operations.

Canadian AI companies also need financing and customers. The strategy includes support to help them grow in Canada and sell into international markets.

AI needs electricity

Electricity is part of the plan. The computing systems used to develop and run AI need a reliable supply of power.

The strategy describes Canada’s clean electricity as an advantage. It also acknowledges a constraint: available power for large-scale AI expansion is currently limited.

Ottawa has committed to building a public AI supercomputer and investing in Canadian computing and cloud infrastructure. The June announcement says those investments should align with clean energy expansion, meet environmental standards and benefit local communities.

Building that infrastructure means planning for its electricity demand. New facilities will need power alongside the businesses and households already using the grid.

The strategy also identifies reliance on foreign computing providers and overseas chip manufacturing as weaknesses. Canadian research expertise does not remove the need for access to the equipment and services required to use it.

Energy and natural resources are among the strategy’s priority sectors. Ottawa proposes using AI to improve resource extraction, accelerate the clean energy transition and strengthen supply chains.

Other priorities include health, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing and robotics. The goal is to apply AI across industries where Canada already has research and economic strengths.

Making Ottawa a customer

The federal government plans to use its own spending to help Canadian technology companies grow.

Carney announced Digital Transformation Canada on September 3. Patrick Pichette, a former Google chief financial officer, leads the organisation. Its job is to improve how Ottawa develops, buys and uses technology.

“Canada’s future prosperity will be built by those who innovate, adopt new technologies, and move quickly to seize new opportunities,” Carney said in the September announcement.

That includes buying from Canadian digital and AI companies to help them test products, bring technologies to market and expand their businesses.

A government contract can give a company a customer and experience delivering its product. Ottawa expects the same purchases to improve public services.

The organisation also plans to bring private-sector specialists into government for short assignments. They will help public servants develop the expertise to assess, buy and use new technologies.

The approach links government purchasing to domestic company growth. Its results will depend on which products Ottawa buys and how well they work.

Protecting Canadians

Canadians need protections as AI becomes part of everyday life. In earlier interviews with Energi Media, computer scientist Francine Berman, columnist Andrew Coyne and Trent University researcher Anne Pasek identified gaps in public oversight and control.

Berman argues that essential digital systems should be treated as critical infrastructure. That means designing and regulating them to protect the people who depend on them.

“We don’t apply the same kinds of guardrails and protections to them that we do to other kinds of critical infrastructure,” she said.

She pointed to the automobile. Safer design, regulation and public pressure gradually reduced its risks. Digital technology needs the same sustained attention, she argued. Companies need to make profits. Governments have a responsibility to protect the public.

Coyne supported public regulation. Competition between technology companies, he warned, can encourage them to release products before adequate safeguards are in place.

“But it’s not enough to rely on the goodwill or otherwise of the tech oligarchs,” he said.

Pasek raised a different protection issue: control over Canadian data and technology. Building data centres on Canadian soil does not by itself establish that control, she argued.

“I think it’s more about a question of how we diversify the tech sector,” she said.

She called for a larger role for Canadian businesses and support for locally run open-source projects. Where the infrastructure sits is only part of the sovereignty question. Who operates it and how it serves Canadian needs also matter.

Ottawa’s strategy promises stronger privacy protections, measures against harmful deepfakes and greater AI transparency. It also plans to expand the Canadian AI Safety Institute’s ability to evaluate models.

The new council will advise on safety and protecting democracy. A small team within the Privy Council Office will support it. Ministers and departments remain responsible for decisions and implementation.

The announcement gives no council budget, meeting schedule or timetable for publishing recommendations.