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OTTAWA \u2013 At the Paris AI Action Summit in February, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders watched as U.S. Vice President JD Vance took the stage to rail against AI regulation.<\/p>\n
Vance\u2019s speech \u2014 delivered with his face projected on a large screen between the intricately-carved pillars lining the stage at the historic Grand Palais \u2014 marked the beginning of a global shift in governments\u2019 attitudes toward AI governance.<\/p>\n
That shift hit Canada a month later, when Mark Carney replaced Trudeau as prime minister and signalled a new approach to artificial intelligence in this country.<\/p>\n
Under the Trudeau Liberals, then-industry minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne could boast about the possibility of Canada being the first country to introduce AI regulation legislation.<\/p>\n
But Carney\u2019s new Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon came to office vowing that the government wouldn\u2019t \u201cover-index\u201d on AI regulation. If the United States and China weren\u2019t interested in AI governance, Solomon said, Canada wouldn\u2019t go it alone.<\/p>\n
In less than a year, the federal government\u2019s focus shifted from fencing in AI development to chasing the economic opportunities offered by the transformative technology, and to increased adoption, especially in the federal public service.<\/p>\n
As the year came to a close, Solomon announced new agreements on AI with Germany, the U.K., and the EU at the G7 industry, digital and technology ministers\u2019 meeting in Montreal. He maintained Canada\u2019s approach hadn\u2019t changed, despite the decision to sign memorandums of understanding with pro-regulation Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur position is exactly where we have been,\u201d Solomon said in an interview with The Canadian Press at the meeting earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve said since the moment I became the minister was there is a sweet spot here between what I thought was over-regulation by the EU, constraining innovation, and in the United States and China.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president of the European Commission for technological sovereignty, security and democracy, said that as both Canada and the European Union pursue AI development, humans \u2014 not machines \u2014 must be in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to be based on our democratic values and we have that human-centric approach. So I think we have quite similar ideas on that, how we want to develop technologies and that\u2019s why it\u2019s important that we are now working together,\u201d Virkkunen said.<\/p>\n
Virkkunen noted the EU has taken criticism about overregulation seriously. While it continues to strongly support its current approach and its AI Act, she said, it also wants to implement that policy in an innovation-friendly manner and cut red tape and bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
In their interviews with The Canadian Press, both Solomon and Virkkunen insisted that U.S. opposition to AI regulation was nuanced \u2014 that efforts to regulate AI continued at the state level. Just days after, however, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to block U.S. states from regulating AI.<\/p>\n
So how does Canada fit into the dynamic between the U.S. and Europe?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Canada will, of course, decide in the coming months \u2026 what kind of rules Canada would like to set,\u201d Virkkunen said.<\/p>\n
Solomon said he plans to introduce a new privacy bill when the House of Commons comes back from holiday break. When he was industry minister, Champagne tabled Bill C-27, which would have updated Canada\u2019s private sector privacy laws and introduced new obligations for \u201chigh-impact\u201d AI systems.<\/p>\n
Solomon plans to bring back the privacy part of that legislation, but not the wide-ranging AI regulation elements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not going to be the exact same piece of legislation as C-27 was, which \u2026 had a much more all-encompassing attempt to regulate AI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the bill will include measures to protect children and fight deepfakes.<\/p>\n
Solomon has said he was considering including in the legislation age restrictions on access to chatbots and the right to delete deepfakes. In his early December interview with The Canadian Press, he declined to offer details of what will be included.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want some ways to protect citizens. We also want ways to have some enforcement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Given the attitude of the Trump administration, \u201cpassing regulation is going to be more challenging (in) this political environment,\u201d said Heidi Tworek, a professor of history and public policy at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut also, this government doesn\u2019t seem to be as focused on doing that because it\u2019s much more concerned about the sort of innovation piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Carney, the government has prioritized AI and \u201cplaced it within a frame that is prioritizing the commercial applications of AI,\u201d Tworek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said that focus is evident in the composition of the \u201ctask force\u201d Solomon put together to guide him on updating the national AI strategy. That group has been accused of being too weighted toward industry voices.<\/p>\n
Carney is also emphasizing the pursuit of \u201csovereign AI\u201d \u2014 a strategy for developing and controlling AI within a nation\u2019s borders \u2014 which ties into his focus on major projects and national infrastructure, Tworek added.<\/p>\n
Paul Samson, president of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said Carney is looking to AI for ways to goose Canada\u2019s productivity growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe needs economic growth and productivity growth, and AI is an area that can deliver some of that, which is hard to come by these days,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I think he\u2019s very interested in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Daley, professor and chief AI officer at Western University, said it was \u201cabsolutely essential\u201d for the government to appoint an AI minister.<\/p>\n
The move sends a signal globally that AI is a \u201cpriority for us, and it also sends the right signals internally within Canada and internally within the federal government,\u201d Daley said.<\/p>\n
He added the government \u201chas a deep understanding that AI and compute are nation-building infrastructure platforms. This is the railroad of the twenty first century.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Carney has yet to invest significant amounts of public money in his AI vision.<\/p>\n
Under Trudeau, the 2024 budget allocated $2.4 billion to AI development. Most of the money was earmarked for building access to computational power and developing sovereign AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n
When Carney introduced his first budget in the fall of 2025, it included $925.6 million for sovereign AI infrastructure to increase AI compute availability. But only a small portion of that was new money; $800 million came from funds that had already been allocated.<\/p>\n
Carney also has spoken about building a \u201csovereign cloud\u201d \u2014 a cloud computing setup restricted to a nation\u2019s borders and guided by that nation\u2019s laws \u2014 in the context of his push for major national projects. The government cited a sovereign cloud as one of its goals \u2014 but none of the major projects it has announced so far are focused on building one.<\/p>\n
Whether Carney\u2019s funding approach will change once Solomon\u2019s updated national AI strategy is unveiled in the new year remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
Samson said a lot of countries would be happy to see Canada take on a more active role in pursuing international AI governance \u2014 on barring AI from access to nuclear weapons, for example.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada\u2019s a little bit shy to stick its head out there too much because of the Trump factor and the U.S. factor of big tech,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samson said he\u2019s had conversations with representatives from other countries and major international organizations who would like to see Canada do more, but who can\u2019t say so publicly. They includes representatives of non-G7 countries which are looking for a \u201ccatalyst that\u2019s a little more plugged in, like a G7 country\u201d to start the conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not many countries that can kind of facilitate some of these international conversations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 The Canadian Press<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n