Country Overview
Canada enters 2026 with considerable stated AI ambition but no comprehensive AI law. Its proposed statute, the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), died on the order paper at the January 2025 prorogation and was never revived. In its place, Prime Minister Mark Carney's June 2026 'AI for All' strategy is reported (per secondary press coverage; the precise aggregate investment figure has not been independently confirmed against the primary strategy document) to commit roughly $2 billion over five years to sovereign compute, a national public supercomputer, and further funding for the federal Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (CAISI). Separately, the Prime Minister's Office states the strategy aims to raise AI adoption from about 12% to 60% of the economy by 2034, contribute an estimated $200 billion to economic growth, and support roughly 250,000 jobs — targets that are distinct from, and considerably larger than, the ~$2B investment figure itself.
Governance in the meantime runs mainly through existing privacy, human-rights and competition law, a voluntary Code of Conduct for Generative AI, and a Directive on Automated Decision-Making that binds only federal institutions — supplemented, as of mid-2026, by two narrower AI-relevant bills: Bill C-16, which criminalizes non-consensual AI-generated deepfake intimate images and took effect July 18, 2026, and the still-pending Bill C-36, which would replace federal private-sector privacy law and touch on AI-driven automated decision-making and algorithmic pricing. Neither amounts to the comprehensive AI statute AIDA would have been.
At a Glance
Overall AI policy direction
Ambitious investment, no binding AI law
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Major AI companies
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Research institutions
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Live debates
- Latest development
- June 18, 2026
- Regulatory approach
- No comprehensive AI statute since AIDA died in 2025; governs via existing law, voluntary codes, and narrower targeted bills such as the deepfake-focused Bill C-16 (in force since July 2026) and the still-pending Bill C-36 privacy overhaul
- Major AI companies
- Cohere, Waabi
- Major cloud providers
- AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud +8 more
- Leading research institutions
- Mila – Quebec AI Institute, Vector Institute, Amii
- Key ministries
- Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (CAISI)
- Government involvement
- High investment, low binding regulation — a dedicated AI ministerial portfolio within ISED, but no statute
- Industrial strategy
- Sovereign compute and a national public supercomputer under 'AI for All'
- International partnerships
- Germany-Canada Sovereign Technology Alliance
- Primary policy focus
- Government-stated targets under 'AI for All': raising adoption from ~12% to 60% of the economy by 2034, an estimated $200B contribution to economic growth, and roughly 250,000 jobs
Current Direction
Loosening
AIDA's death left Canada without a comprehensive AI statute, and 'AI for All' pairs substantial state investment with a February 2026 government consultation summary (published by ISED and echoed by several law-firm analyses) that signals — but does not yet enact — future rules on safety evaluation, red-teaming, oversight, traceability and liability. Two narrower bills have since moved: Bill C-16, criminalizing AI-generated deepfake intimate images (in force since July 2026), and the still-pending Bill C-36 privacy overhaul — neither amounts to comprehensive AI legislation.
Recent Developments
Bill C-16, the 'Protecting Victims Act,' received Royal Assent, amending the Criminal Code to criminalize non-consensual AI-generated/deepfake intimate images among broader victim-protection reforms; most provisions took effect July 18, 2026.
Major2026-06-18Bill C-36, the 'Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act,' was tabled, proposing to replace PIPEDA, recognize privacy as a fundamental right, and directly address AI-driven automated decision-making, deepfakes, and algorithmic/surveillance pricing; it remained before Parliament as of mid-2026, with the House not returning until September 21, 2026.
2026-06-15PM Mark Carney launches 'AI for All', a five-year national AI strategy reported at roughly $2B, targeting a national public supercomputer, sovereign compute capacity, and further funding for the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (CAISI).
Major2026-06-04SourcePrime Minister of CanadaISED's AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program (SCIP) — a call for proposals to build a large-scale public AI supercomputer backed by roughly $890M over seven fiscal years — closed to applications on June 1, 2026 and entered assessment; no build partner had been publicly announced as of early August 2026. It is the compute centrepiece of Canada's broader Sovereign AI Compute Strategy, alongside a separate stream enabling commercial 'sovereign' AI data centres above 100MW.
Germany–Canada Sovereign Technology Alliance launched at the Munich Security Conference to reduce strategic technology dependency.
2026-02-14SourceCIOISED published 'Engagements on Canada's next AI Strategy: Summary of inputs,' summarizing a 30-day national consultation (11,000+ submissions from a 28-member AI Strategy Task Force process) and signaling possible future legislation on AI safety evaluation, red-teaming, oversight, traceability and liability; the characterization is corroborated by several independent law-firm analyses.
Evan Solomon confirmed as Canada's first-ever Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation.
2025-05SourcePrime Minister of CanadaAIDA (Bill C-27) confirmed dead, having died on the order paper at the January 2025 prorogation and not revived after the April 2025 election.
2025-04
Policy and Regulation
AI for All national strategy
Five-year strategy reported by secondary press coverage (IAPP and tech press summing individual funding line items) at approximately $2B, described as spanning six focus areas — protect, empower, drive adoption, build sovereign AI foundations, scale Canadian champions, and strengthen global partnerships — though the exact aggregate investment figure and full framework have not been independently confirmed against the primary strategy document. The Prime Minister's Office separately states the strategy targets raising AI adoption from about 12% to 60% of the economy by 2034, an estimated $200 billion contribution to economic growth, and roughly 250,000 jobs.
Official text ↗Directive on Automated Decision-Making
Binding rules governing how federal institutions use automated decision systems; in effect since April 2019, applying to systems developed or procured after April 2020. Does not extend to the private sector.
Official text ↗Voluntary Code of Conduct for Generative AI
Non-binding commitments for advanced generative AI developers and deployers, published by ISED in September 2023; had 30+ signatories as of 2024, reportedly growing to more than 55 by mid-2025, though the exact current signatory count as of 2026 could not be confirmed. Fills part of the gap left by AIDA's failure.
Official text ↗Bill C-16 — Protecting Victims Act
Amends the Criminal Code to criminalize non-consensual distribution of AI-generated/deepfake intimate images (including 'nearly nude' depictions likely to be mistaken for real images), alongside broader victim-protection reforms; received Royal Assent June 18, 2026, with most provisions in force since July 18, 2026.
Official text ↗Bill C-36 — Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act
Would replace PIPEDA with a new federal private-sector privacy framework recognizing privacy as a fundamental right, and would directly address AI-driven automated decision-making, deepfakes, and algorithmic/surveillance pricing. Tabled June 15, 2026 and still before Parliament as of mid-2026, with the House not returning until September 21, 2026.
Official text ↗Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA / Bill C-27)
Canada's proposed comprehensive AI statute died on the order paper at the January 2025 prorogation and was not revived after the 2025 election.
Official text ↗Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (CAISI)
Federal AI safety institute launched in November 2024 with an initial ~$50M/5-year budget, delivering research via CIFAR and government-directed work via the National Research Council. It is one of the ten founding members of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes (launched November 2024), alongside Australia, the EU, France, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Singapore, the UK and the US — note the US institute was renamed the Center for AI Standards and Innovation in mid-2025, and the UK institute the AI Security Institute in early 2025. The June 2026 'AI for All' strategy commits a further $50M to CAISI, per secondary press reporting.
Official text ↗Research Ecosystem
Canada's AI research base runs through three CIFAR-backed national institutes — Amii (Edmonton), Mila (Montreal, whose community Mila itself describes as 1,500+ strong as of mid-2026, with some aggregator sources citing 1,400+) and the Vector Institute (Toronto) — under the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, which several observers have cited as a notable concentration of academic AI research capacity relative to the country's population.
Major AI Companies
Cohere
Toronto-based AI lab widely regarded as one of Canada's leading large-language-model developers; announced a merger agreement with Germany's Aleph Alpha on April 24, 2026 that would create a combined entity reported to be valued at roughly $20 billion, backed by a $600M Schwarz Group financing commitment. As of mid-2026 the deal had not yet closed, remaining subject to regulatory clearance from competition authorities in Canada, Germany and the EU, with closing expected in the second half of 2026.
Waabi
Toronto-based autonomous-driving AI company founded by Raquel Urtasun; reported raising roughly $1 billion in January 2026 (a $750M Series C plus further milestone-based capital from Uber) and expanding from trucking into robotaxis, and in July 2026 reportedly demonstrated its AI driver transferring to a Volvo autonomous truck platform without retraining.
Cloud Infrastructure
- Frontier AI
- Domestic frontier developer
- Compute
- Growing sovereign compute: ~$890M public AI supercomputer (SCIP) plus Telus 'AI Factory' data centres
- Chip access
- Import-reliant on foreign GPUs; some chip-design (Tenstorrent) but no domestic advanced fabrication
AWS
Major global hyperscaler operating two Canadian regions (Montreal and Calgary), used for Canadian enterprise and public-sector AI workloads and reportedly planning roughly $18B in Canadian investment through 2037; a Canada-specific market-share figure could not be confirmed.
Microsoft Azure
Major global hyperscaler operating Canada Central (Toronto) and Canada East (Quebec City) regions, with deep Canadian government and enterprise integration; a Canada-specific market-share figure could not be confirmed.
Google Cloud
Major global hyperscaler operating two Canadian regions (Montreal, live since 2018, and Toronto, live since 2021), used across Canadian research and enterprise AI deployments; a Canada-specific market-share figure could not be confirmed.
Oracle Cloud
Operates two Canadian regions, Toronto (launched 2019) and Montreal (launched 2020); a Canada-specific market-share figure could not be confirmed.
Telus
Canadian telecom building a network of 'Sovereign AI Factory' data centres under the federal Enabling Large-Scale Sovereign AI Data Centres initiative — including a Rimouski, Quebec site (opened September 2025, reportedly sold out and recognized as Canada's fastest supercomputer on the TOP500 list) and a Kamloops, BC site (reportedly up to 12,500 GPUs / 25MW, expanding through 2026) — with further BC sites planned and total capacity reportedly scaling beyond 150MW by 2032.
Equinix
Data-centre/colocation operator with a presence in Canada, mainly Toronto and Montreal, per market reports.
Cologix
Data-centre/colocation operator with a presence in Canada, per market reports.
eStruxture Data Centres
Described in industry coverage as the largest Canadian-owned/operated data-centre provider, with facilities across Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, per market reports.
Digital Realty
Data-centre/colocation operator with a presence in Canada, per market reports.
Urbacon Data Centre Solutions
Data-centre operator with a presence in Canada, per market reports.
OVHcloud
French cloud provider operating multiple Canadian data centres (reportedly around five, spanning Quebec and Ontario) and reported to be actively expanding its Canadian footprint to capture AI-driven demand, positioning it as a regional alternative to the hyperscalers.
Leading Universities
Mila – Quebec AI Institute
Montreal-based AI research institute, part of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy; reportedly numbers in the low-to-mid thousands of community members as of mid-2026, though exact figures vary (Mila materials cite 1,500+, some secondary aggregators cite 1,400+). Founded by Yoshua Bengio, who moved into a Founder and Scientific Advisor role; Hugo Larochelle (former head of Google Brain Montreal) was named Mila's Scientific Director in May 2026, per BetaKit and Mila's own announcements.
Vector Institute
Toronto-based AI research institute under the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy.
Amii
Edmonton-based AI research institute under the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy.
Think Tanks
Government Institutions
Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation
Ministerial portfolio created in May 2025 and held by Evan Solomon, Canada's first-ever Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation; operates within the Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) departmental structure rather than as a fully separate standalone department, though it is commonly described in media coverage as Canada's AI ministry. Leads the national AI strategy including 'AI for All'.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
Parent department coordinating federal AI and digital innovation policy.
Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (CAISI)
Federal AI safety institute launched in November 2024, led by ISED with research delivered via CIFAR and government-directed work via the National Research Council; one of ten founding members of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes (Nov 2024), alongside Australia, the EU, France, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Singapore, the UK and the US. Received an initial ~$50M/5-year budget, with a further $50M committed under the June 2026 'AI for All' strategy. Dr. Elissa Strome (formerly of CIFAR) was appointed Executive Director in February 2025; CAISI's research program at CIFAR is reportedly co-directed by Catherine Regis (Université de Montréal/Mila) and Nicolas Papernot.
Notable Gaps
Comprehensive AI legislation
Canada has no dedicated, in-force comprehensive AI statute as of mid-2026; the proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA / Bill C-27) died on the order paper in January 2025 and was not revived. Governance instead relies on existing privacy, human-rights and competition law, a voluntary code of conduct for generative AI, a Directive on Automated Decision-Making that binds only federal institutions, and two narrower bills (C-16, in force; C-36, pending) that address specific AI-adjacent harms without amounting to comprehensive legislation.
AI regulatory enforcement
No standalone federal 'AI regulator' distinct from ISED/CAISI exists; enforcement of AI-adjacent rules is currently spread across the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, human-rights bodies, and competition regulators, with a new Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission proposed but not yet enacted under the pending Bill C-36.
Company landscape coverage
Beyond Cohere and Waabi, other Canadian AI companies described in industry coverage as notable — including Ada (Toronto customer-service AI), Coveo (Quebec enterprise AI search/agentic company), and Sanctuary AI (Vancouver humanoid robotics) — are not currently profiled here.
Domestic chip manufacturing
No domestic semiconductor fabrication industry was identified for Canada; the country's AI compute buildout (e.g., Telus's sovereign AI data centres) appears to rely on imported GPU hardware rather than domestic chip production. Canada does have some AI chip-design activity (e.g., Tenstorrent, founded in Toronto, though now headquartered in Santa Clara, California), but design capability is distinct from — and does not offset the absence of — domestic fabrication.
Think tank / policy institute coverage
Beyond CIGI, other Canadian institutions doing substantial AI governance work were not found profiled here, including the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (University of Toronto) and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy's AI Competitiveness Project, which published a 2026 report on Canadian AI sovereignty options.
Key People
Evan Solomon
GovernmentMinister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation
Aidan Gomez
IndustryCo-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Cohere
Duncan Cass-Beggs
Think tankExecutive Director, Global AI Risks Initiative
CIGI
Elissa Strome
GovernmentExecutive Director
Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (CAISI)
Yoshua Bengio
ResearcherCo-President and Scientific Director, LawZero; Founder and Scientific Advisor, Mila
LawZero / Mila
People and Organisations to Follow
Evan Solomon
GovernmentMinister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation; leads 'AI for All' implementation.
Aidan Gomez
CompanyCohere co-founder and CEO; widely regarded as one of Canada's most prominent frontier AI voices.
CIGI
Think tankCentre for International Governance Innovation; runs the Global AI Risks Initiative.
Current Debates
GovernmentLegislative vacuum after AIDA's death
Canada still has no comprehensive AI statute after AIDA's collapse. 'AI for All' invests heavily and a February 2026 government consultation summary signals possible future rules, but only two narrower, non-comprehensive bills have actually moved through Parliament so far.
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Legislative vacuum after AIDA's death
Canada still has no comprehensive AI statute after AIDA's collapse. 'AI for All' invests heavily and a February 2026 government consultation summary signals possible future rules, but only two narrower, non-comprehensive bills have actually moved through Parliament so far.
AIDA would have been Canada's first comprehensive AI law, but it died on the order paper when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025 and was never revived. In February 2026, ISED published a summary of a 30-day national AI-strategy consultation (11,000+ submissions) that several law-firm analyses describe as signaling government interest in future legislation on safety evaluation, red-teaming, oversight, traceability and liability. Since then, two narrower bills have moved: Bill C-16, which criminalizes AI-generated deepfake intimate images and has been in force since July 2026, and the still-pending Bill C-36, which would overhaul federal privacy law and touch AI-driven automated decision-making and algorithmic pricing. Neither is a comprehensive AI statute, so as of mid-2026 a real gap remains between Canada's investment ambitions and its regulatory maturity.
InvestmentGermany-Canada Sovereign Technology Alliance and cross-border AI sovereignty
A new alliance with Germany, launched at the Munich Security Conference, suggests Canada is pursuing AI sovereignty partly through international partnership rather than acting alone.
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Germany-Canada Sovereign Technology Alliance and cross-border AI sovereignty
A new alliance with Germany, launched at the Munich Security Conference, suggests Canada is pursuing AI sovereignty partly through international partnership rather than acting alone.
The alliance aims to reduce both countries' strategic technology dependency, notably as Canada's own Cohere agreed to merge with Germany's Aleph Alpha in the same period (announced April 2026, not yet closed as of mid-2026) — raising questions about what 'sovereign' AI capability means when flagship national champions are consolidating across borders.
InvestmentScaling 'AI for All's' ambitious 2034 adoption targets
The Prime Minister's Office describes the strategy as targeting adoption growth from roughly 12% to 60% of the economy by 2034, alongside an estimated $200 billion contribution to economic growth and roughly 250,000 jobs — a steep curve, if the targets hold up, that would require sustained investment well beyond the initial five-year window.
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Scaling 'AI for All's' ambitious 2034 adoption targets
The Prime Minister's Office describes the strategy as targeting adoption growth from roughly 12% to 60% of the economy by 2034, alongside an estimated $200 billion contribution to economic growth and roughly 250,000 jobs — a steep curve, if the targets hold up, that would require sustained investment well beyond the initial five-year window.
Independent of the legislative question, delivering on targets of this scale would require sustained compute investment, talent development, and enterprise adoption support well beyond what a single five-year strategy reported at roughly $2B typically sustains — making the plan's multi-decade follow-through, and the underlying adoption, growth and jobs figures themselves, live open questions worth tracking against primary government data as it becomes available.
Knowledge Hub
Official documents
Academic papers
- The death of Canada's Artificial Intelligence and Data Act— Montreal AI Ethics Institute
Think tank reports
Sources
Deliberately sourced beyond government publications. The bars below show each category’s actual share of this page’s citations — an internal editorial guideline rather than a rigorously derived target, so treat it as a rough steer, not a precise benchmark.
- Prime Minister Carney launches AI for AllGovernmentPrime Minister of Canada2026-06
- Germany's sovereign AI hope changes handsNewsCIO2026
- What's next for AIDAResearchSchwartz Reisman Institute2025
- Pan-Canadian AI StrategyResearchCIFAR2026
- Global AI Risks InitiativeThink tanksCIGI2026
- Cohere company updatesIndustryCohere2026
- Mila – Quebec AI InstituteResearchMila2026
- Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (CAISI)GovernmentInnovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)2026
- Directive on Automated Decision-MakingGovernmentTreasury Board of Canada Secretariat2019-04
- Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI SystemsGovernmentInnovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)2023-09
- Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA)GovernmentInnovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
- Protecting Victims Act (Bill C-16)GovernmentDepartment of Justice Canada2026-06
- Government of Canada introduces legislation to protect Canadians' privacy in the digital age (Bill C-36)GovernmentInnovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)2026-06
- Fact Sheet: U.S. Department of Commerce & U.S. Department of State Launch the International Network of AI Safety InstitutesGovernmentNIST / U.S. Department of Commerce2024-11
- Engagements on Canada's next AI Strategy: Summary of inputsGovernmentInnovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)2026-02
- Yoshua BengioResearchMila2026
- AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure ProgramGovernmentInnovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)2026-06
- Canadian government launches Sovereign AI Compute StrategyNewsData Center Dynamics2026