Canada’s AI for All Strategy: Key Takeaways for Businesses

On June 4, 2026, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada published Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy: AI for All (Strategy). The Strategy outlines a coordinated approach towards artificial intelligence (AI) integration in Canada while addressing key risks associated with AI adoption, including trust and safety and the lack of Canadian control over existing AI infrastructure.

Organized around six pillars, the Strategy is designed to foster trust, provide opportunity for and empower Canadians, and safeguard Canadian sovereignty. The Strategy also indicates that the federal government intends to concentrate AI-related investment in the following priority sectors: health and life sciences, energy and natural resources, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and robotics.

This bulletin provides an overview of the initiatives outlined in the pillars of the Strategy and highlights key takeaways for businesses.

Key Initiatives

Pillar 1: Protecting Canadians and Safeguarding Democracy

The first pillar of the Strategy focuses on building trust in AI. The Strategy recognizes that Canadians are concerned about how AI may affect privacy, fairness and safety. It also recognizes that AI presents risks such as deepfakes, synthetic media and AI-generated disinformation.

To address these risks, the federal government intends to modernize Canada’s privacy and online safety framework. The government is committing to introduce new consumer privacy legislation to “enshrine a fundamental right to privacy” and give Canadians greater control over their personal data.

The Strategy states that the proposed privacy law reforms will “ensure that Canadians’ personal information is not used inappropriately, including for surveillance pricing.” The concept of surveillance or personalized pricing has garnered significant attention nationally since Manitoba’s proposal to ban the practice. See our bulletin on this topic, Manitoba Proposes to Ban Personalized Pricing Under Bill 49.

The government also intends to introduce new safety legislation to address digital harms, such as online violence and algorithmic biases, particularly those affecting children. We anticipate that these legislative reforms to address AI will not include comprehensive AI legislation but instead will likely build on proposals from the previous federal government, including the Consumer Protection Privacy Act and Online Harms Act. Our bulletins on these prior bills can be read here: Privacy Reform Redux: New Federal Bill Set to Reform Canada’s Private-Sector Privacy Law and Canada’s Bill C-63: Online Harms Act Targets Harmful Content on Social Media.

The Strategy also calls for the need for greater AI transparency. Proposed initiatives include measures, such as watermarks, to help Canadians identify when they are interacting with AI-generated content, as well as a Canadian Trusted AI Certification program to help Canadians identify trustworthy AI products in the market. It is not clear from the Strategy whether the federal government has prepared legislation to support this policy goal.

The government also plans to enter several partnerships to address the safety and reliability of AI systems. The government intends to invest C$50-million to expand the Canadian AI Safety Institute, including by supporting technical research, model evaluations and monitoring of emerging AI risks. It also intends to partner with law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies to accelerate AI research, testing and deployment of Canadian technologies to address fraud, extortion, cyber defence, threat detection and data protection. These efforts complement the government’s recent efforts to strengthen Canada’s cybersecurity posture, including through the enactment of the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act. 

Pillar 2: Ensuring AI Empowers Canadians

The Strategy aims to ensure that Canadians have the knowledge and tools to integrate AI into their lives. Key initiatives under this pillar address three dimensions: literacy, opportunity and participation.

To improve AI literacy, the government aims to create a National AI Literacy Initiative to offer AI training that is accessible to all Canadians. The Strategy also contemplates the creation of over 250,000 AI-relevant jobs by 2031, with the government creating up to 90,000 AI-related job opportunities itself.

The Strategy highlights the importance of ensuring that AI reflects Canadian culture, languages and values. This includes supporting Indigenous-led AI initiatives, adopting tools that promote the French language, promoting an equity-based national AI standard, applying Gender-Based Analysis Plus across policy design and governance, and establishing a Creative Technology Program to support Canadian creators using AI.

Pillar 3: Powering Shared Prosperity

The third pillar focuses on increasing AI adoption across the entire Canadian economy, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the healthcare industry and in public service delivery.

To promote AI use by SMEs, the Strategy highlights measures to reduce common barriers such as cost, access to expertise and uncertainty about how to begin AI integration. Key actions targeted at this issue include using the Business Development Bank of Canada LIFT program to assist SMEs with financing, supporting the development of online resources to educate SMEs on AI, providing targeted support through the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development Program, and leveraging the scientific research and experimental development tax credit and Productivity Super-Deduction announced in the 2025 Budget.

The Strategy identifies five priority sectors for AI adoption: health and life sciences; energy and natural resources; transportation; agriculture; and manufacturing and robotics. These sectors are expected to guide future investment and commercialization opportunities. The government will launch an AI Missions Program to advance targeted projects in these industries. The government’s first priority will be the healthcare industry, with an initial mission to commit C$200-million towards improving health outcomes for Canadians.

Pillar 4: Building the Canadian Sovereign AI Foundation

A major component of the Strategy is the development of Canadian-controlled AI infrastructure. The Strategy highlights concerns about Canadians’ dependency on foreign cloud platforms, emphasizing that reliance on infrastructure that Canada does not own may place sensitive Canadian data beyond Canada’s direct control. This dependency allows AI products to shape Canadian lives despite not reflecting Canadian values and limits Canadian firms to competing on infrastructure that they do not own. The Strategy frames AI “sovereignty” as necessary to Canada’s economic competitiveness, national security and ability to control sensitive data.

To mitigate dependencies, the Strategy introduces a “build-partner-buy” approach, which includes building Canadian-operated and controlled infrastructure that is subject to Canadian law (which the Strategy refers to as “sovereign”) where possible, partnering with trusted allies and buying existing market solutions. The Strategy does not imply that the government intends to restrict foreign ownership of such infrastructure. For more, see our bulletin: AI Sovereignty: What Canadian Businesses Need to Know.

The Strategy notes that Canada has important natural resource advantages in building AI infrastructure. Canada intends to double the electricity grid, largely with clean power, hydro, nuclear and renewables, and leverage its cold climate when developing high-performance computing infrastructure.

The Strategy also sets out plans for Canada to build its own world-leading public supercomputer, along with investments in the expansion of high-capacity fibre lines, satellite connectivity, chip design and fabrication capabilities, and the building and reinforcement of secure digital systems used for government operations.

Pillar 5: Building and Scaling Canadian AI Champions

The Strategy identifies a recurring challenge: promising Canadian companies often grow elsewhere. The federal government intends to address this by improving access to capital, accelerating SME commercialization on Canadian infrastructure and growing Canadian foundation models.

A key initiative for increasing access to capital is the establishment of a C$500-million Canadian Tech Growth Fund, which may enable the federal government to take equity in promising Canadian AI firms. Additional measures include C$1.75-billion of federal investments and a buy-Canadian policy geared toward domestic start-ups.

To support SMEs, the Strategy contemplates additional funding and investment into commercialization programs across the National AI Institutes and reassessment of current innovation programs to shorten the path from research to market. The government will also leverage C$159-million invested through the Elevate IP and IP Assist programs to protect Canadian intellectual property and support SMEs in commercializing their intangible assets in the global marketplace.

Pillar 6: Building Trusted Partnerships and Global Alliances

The sixth pillar focuses on achieving strategic alliances. The Strategy recognizes that dominance in the AI field by large global technology companies and a small number of jurisdictions poses security and economic challenges.

A key action is the continued expansion of the Sovereign Technology Alliance (Alliance), launched by Canada and Germany in 2026. The Alliance is intended to secure AI capabilities and open opportunities for domestic AI companies. Alongside the Alliance, the Strategy indicates plans to leverage the Trade Commissioner Service and diplomatic networks to attract foreign investment in AI and showcase Canadian AI companies internationally.

The Strategy also highlights open-source AI as an alternative to closed platforms, viewing it as more transparent, less expensive and easier to deploy. The government intends to lead a global, multi-stakeholder effort to invest in open-source AI development in the public interest. It also intends to support the responsible adoption of open-source AI by Canadian researchers, SMEs, not-for-profit organizations and public-interest innovators.

In addition, international partnerships will be used to open new markets for Canadian businesses and attract investment into Canadian AI infrastructure and projects. The Strategy identifies cooperation with partners in Europe, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East as key opportunities.

Key Takeaways for Businesses

• The Strategy provides helpful clarity for businesses operating in Canada that they should expect to see proposals to reform or replace the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act in the near future to address automated processing of personal information and certain unfair consumer practices.
• Businesses operating online platforms should also expect to see a reintroduction of measures contemplated in Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, which may require digital platforms to implement new policies and controls to mitigate harmful or violent content.
• The Strategy signals a federal policy shift from research leadership to commercialization and widespread enterprise adoption.
• Canada continues to invest significantly in AI capacity with over C$2-billion in public investment contemplated.
• The Strategy does not suggest that Canada will seek to restrict foreign ownership of AI infrastructure, including data centers, but emphasizes investment in Canadian-operated and controlled infrastructure that is subject to Canadian law. 

For more information, please contact any member of our Artificial Intelligence group.