Namir Anani, President & CEO, Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC)
Canada stands at an important inflection point in the global AI economy.
The Government of Canada's newly released “AI for All Strategy” marks a significant and welcome evolution in Canada's approach to artificial intelligence. It reflects a growing recognition that AI is no longer solely a research agenda, it is an economic agenda, a workforce agenda, a sovereignty agenda, and increasingly, a strategic leadership agenda.
What is particularly encouraging is how far this strategy has evolved from the original Pan-Canadian AI Strategy launched in 2018 and 2019. That earlier strategy played a critical role in establishing Canada as a global leader in AI research and talent development. It helped build world-class research institutions, attract leading researchers, and establish Canada's reputation as an early AI pioneer.
Today, however, Canada faces a different challenge. Our challenge is no longer whether we can produce AI research. It is whether we can successfully translate that research into widespread adoption, productivity growth, commercialization, and long-term economic prosperity.
The AI for All Strategy correctly identifies this shift. Its emphasis on AI adoption, workforce development, trust, digital sovereignty, commercialization, and productivity reflects a more mature understanding of what Canada needs to compete in the next phase of the AI economy. In particular, the focus on making AI accessible to all Canadians and ensuring that workers and businesses can participate in the AI transformation is both timely and necessary.
ICTC was also pleased to see elements of the strategy reflect priorities we have consistently advanced through our policy work and parliamentary engagement. The recognition that talent development, digital skills, workforce readiness, and broad-based adoption must be central pillars of Canada’s AI agenda is encouraging. Likewise, the strategy’s acknowledgement of the importance of semiconductors and compute infrastructure demonstrates an appreciation for the foundational technologies that underpin AI competitiveness.
AI for All establishes a strong and ambitious vision for Canada’s AI future. The following implementation opportunities are designed to build on that vision and support the effective translation of its goals into tangible economic and social outcomes.
Strengthening the Focus on Productivity Outcomes
One opportunity for the next phase of implementation is to place greater emphasis on measuring the economic impact of AI adoption. While the strategy appropriately focuses on AI literacy, workforce readiness, and SME adoption, there is an opportunity to further define how success will be assessed over time.
Developing a national framework to track AI adoption, productivity improvements, workforce impacts, and sector-level outcomes could help ensure that investments are generating measurable results. A “national AI Productivity Dashboard”, for example, could provide valuable insights into where progress is being made, where additional support may be required, and which practices are delivering the greatest impact.
Helping SMEs Build the Foundations for AI
The strategy's focus on supporting SMEs is both welcome and necessary. At the same time, many organizations remain in the early stages of their digital transformation journey.
For many businesses, successful AI adoption depends on foundational capabilities such as data management, digital workflows, cloud adoption, and process modernization. As implementation moves forward, there may be an opportunity to further align AI adoption initiatives with broader digital transformation efforts.
In addition to awareness-building and advisory supports, policymakers may also wish to explore market-based incentives that encourage investment in AI adoption and productivity-enhancing technologies, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises. These could include AI investment tax credits, productivity tax credits, accelerated depreciation for AI-enabled technologies, and targeted modernization incentives could help reduce risk for SMEs and encourage faster uptake.
Regulatory Clarity as a Competitive Advantage
As AI becomes an increasingly important factor in investment, commercialization, and infrastructure decisions, regulatory clarity can serve as a competitive advantage.
Building on the strategy's commitments to trust, adoption, and sovereignty, Canada could benefit from a longer-term AI governance roadmap that provides businesses, investors, innovators, and consumers with greater certainty about how AI will be governed over the coming decade. Such a roadmap could include risk-based governance frameworks, regulatory sandboxes, sector-specific guidance, future compliance expectations, accountability mechanisms, and alignment with leading international standards. Importantly, it would help ensure that Canadian organizations can operate confidently at home while remaining competitive in global markets that are increasingly adopting AI-specific regulatory requirements.
Regulatory certainty is particularly important for companies making significant long-term investments in AI-enabled products and services. Organizations investing tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in research, product development, infrastructure, compliance, and commercialization need confidence that the rules governing AI deployment are clear, stable, and predictable. Without that certainty, businesses face the risk of developing solutions that may later be subject to unexpected regulatory requirements, restrictions, or enforcement actions. In contrast, jurisdictions that provide clear guidance on acceptable practices, risk management expectations, accountability requirements, and compliance pathways create an environment where innovators can invest with confidence. This is one reason why AI-specific governance frameworks emerging in jurisdictions such as the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Singapore are attracting attention from global investors and technology firms. Companies may not always seek less regulation; often, they seek greater certainty. Predictable rules reduce risk, facilitate capital investment, accelerate commercialization, and ultimately make a jurisdiction more attractive for innovation.
Such an approach would strengthen innovation, enhance public trust, improve Canada's attractiveness as a destination for AI investment, and position Canada as a leader in responsible AI governance rather than simply a follower of frameworks developed elsewhere.
Defining Canada's Role in the Global AI Ecosystem
The strategy appropriately focuses on strengthening Canada's domestic AI capabilities. Looking ahead, there may also be an opportunity to further articulate Canada's role within the evolving global AI landscape.
Canada's longstanding reputation as a trusted convener, consensus-builder, and bridge-builder positions it well to contribute to international discussions on AI governance, standards, and responsible deployment. A more explicit international pillar could reinforce Canada's leadership role in shaping global frameworks while supporting Canadian interests abroad.
Canada can become a trusted AI diplomat, helping shape international norms, standards, governance frameworks, and collaborative approaches to AI development and deployment. This means taking a more active leadership role within organizations such as the United Nations, OECD, UNESCO, G7, and other multilateral forums. It means contributing to global standards development, advancing trusted governance frameworks, and supporting capacity-building efforts in emerging economies. As a middle power with deep expertise, strong democratic institutions, and a reputation for constructive engagement, Canada is uniquely positioned to connect diverse geopolitical and industry interests.
Our opportunity is not simply to participate in global AI governance, but to help shape it.
Advancing a Practical and Strategic Approach to AI Sovereignty
Canada's investments in compute infrastructure represent an important step toward strengthening domestic AI capabilities. As implementation continues, there may be an opportunity to further define what AI sovereignty means in practical terms for Canada.
Rather than seeking control over every layer of the technology stack, a Canadian approach could focus on ensuring trusted access to the capabilities that are most critical to economic competitiveness, public trust, national resilience, and strategic sectors.
Achieving this balance will require:
- Open standards and interoperable platforms
- Strategic investments in infrastructure and commercialization
- Strong public-private collaboration
- Partnerships with like-minded countries that share Canada's values and interests
A successful Canadian model of AI sovereignty should strengthen competitiveness and resilience while remaining deeply connected to global innovation networks.
The Fibre Network Imperative
Discussions about AI infrastructure often focus on compute, power, and data centres. Equally important, however, is the connectivity infrastructure that enables AI systems to operate at scale.
As AI workloads continue to grow, Canada may benefit from a greater focus on fibre capacity, route diversity, low-latency connectivity, resilience, and sovereign networking capabilities. Ensuring that connectivity planning is aligned with investments in compute, power, workforce development, and permitting will be an important part of building a competitive AI ecosystem.
Canada starts from a position of strength. We possess a mature national fibre backbone, strong metropolitan connectivity in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Calgary, and other centres, and proximity to major U.S. cloud and interconnection hubs.
However, maturity is not the same as readiness. AI workloads are fundamentally changing network requirements. Future AI systems will require significantly greater bandwidth, ultra-low latency communications, diverse routing options, resilient infrastructure, and high-capacity east-west data movement between compute clusters.
The challenge is no longer simply providing connectivity. The challenge is building AI-ready connectivity ecosystems. Regional disparities remain. Route diversity, western and northern resilience, deployment speed, and sovereign networking capabilities all require greater attention.
As AI infrastructure expands, connectivity planning, power planning, permitting, workforce development, and industrial policy must become more closely aligned. These cannot be treated as separate conversations.
A Defining Opportunity
The AI for All Strategy provides Canada with an important foundation.
It acknowledges that Canada's AI future depends not only on research excellence, but also on adoption, productivity, workforce development, trust, commercialization, infrastructure, and sovereignty. That shift is both necessary and welcome.
The task ahead is implementation. Canada now has an opportunity to complement this strategy with stronger productivity measurement, enhanced support for SME transformation, greater regulatory clarity, a more explicit international vision, and a comprehensive approach to sovereign digital infrastructure.
If we do this well, Canada can achieve something far more meaningful than simply participating in the AI economy. We can help shape it. Not as the largest player, but as one of the most trusted. Not by competing on scale alone, but by competing on trust, talent, innovation, collaboration, and responsible leadership.
In an era increasingly defined by artificial intelligence, Canada's greatest contribution may ultimately be helping ensure that technological progress remains aligned with economic opportunity, democratic values, and human prosperity.
