Canada stands at a pivotal moment. Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping workplaces, trade, and public life just as the country grapples with climate change, shifting supply chains, and the need for low-carbon energy. A new comprehensive brief argues that Canada can lead globally by developing and governing AI on its own terms—anchored in ethics, sustainability, and social justice—rather than racing to match the scale and speed of U.S. tech giants.
Drawing on the federal government’s seven priority areas from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s May 2025 Mandate Letter, the whitepaper highlights how AI intersects with national challenges such as:
- forging a new economic and security relationship with the United States;
- building an integrated, low-carbon national energy grid;
- protecting workers and consumers from algorithmic discrimination and wage suppression;
- ensuring housing affordability in the era of smart technologies;
- strengthening sovereignty and security without compromising rights;
- attracting and training diverse talent in a disrupted labour market; and
- maintaining transparent, accountable government services.
Authored by an interdisciplinary team of Canadian scholars, the whitepaper offers actionable recommendations:
- the creation of a public cloud Crown corporation,
- the regulation of AI in housing and labour markets,
- the prioritizing renewable-energy data-centre corridors,
- the establishment of bright-line rules for algorithmic use in policing and defence.
The whitepaper argues that Canada should avoid a “winner-takes-all race to construct the biggest general purpose AI model,” instead focusing on ethical and sustainable development. It contributes to ongoing national and international discussions on responsible AI development and offers guidance for Canadian policymakers as they shape technology, labour, and climate strategies.
Co-Led by Dr. Kelly Bronson, Canada Research Chair in Science and Society and a Faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa, and Dr. Anne Pasek, Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture, and the Environment at Trent University, this whitepaper is the result of years of evidence-based research supported by the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue’s Project on AI for Healthy Humans and Environments hosted by the AI + Society Initiative at the University of Ottawa Centre for Law, Technology and Society.
Read “Challenges and Opportunities for a Made-In-Canada Approach to Artificial Intelligence” by Anne Pasek, Trent University; Kelly Bronson, University of Ottawa; Alissa Centivany, Western University; Olivia Doggett, University of Toronto; Kayla Hilstob, Simon Fraser University; Jordan Kinder, New York University; Zenia Kish, Ontario Tech University; Naomi Okabe, Queens University; Sarah-Louise Ruder, University of Ottawa; Eliot Tretter, University of Calgary; Kailey Walker, Queens University; Jiaqi Wen, Simon Fraser University; and Aiden Bradley, University of Ottawa.
This whitepaper was supported by a Connection Grant, “Extractive AI: From Data Mining to Resource Extraction”, from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.