Thank you all. Thank you very much. Minister Solomon, colleagues, it is a great pleasure to be here at Toronto General in the University Health Network (UHN).
It is humbling and inspiring at the same time to be here and to be with such an esteemed group.
Dr. Smith, I should acknowledge as well as Dean Connor, Chair of the Board, Dr. Smith, Kevin, and the entire University Health Network team. Thank you for your service and the care that you provide to so many Canadians every day.
To put this in context, and for those of us who had the privilege of going around the exhibits, it’s not just the service, but it’s the innovation. Everything that I saw didn’t exist five years ago but is transformative today and going forward.
And think about it, at Toronto General, this broader network, 700,000 people are treated a year, using a precious combination of empathy, compassion, world-class expertise, and cutting-edge technologies.
All of those aspects are present. The world’s first single and double-lung transplant happened here. The first external heart pacemaker, the first use of insulin – all happened right here.
That’s what’s possible when good people harness new technologies and deploy them with the right purpose. And that’s what we must do today on a much broader scale but at the same human level, because artificial intelligence (AI) – the defining technology of our era – is here.
In his recent encyclical, Pope Leo (XIV) warned that the scale and speed at which AI is developing, and I quote, “Never has humanity had such power over itself.”
And he set the challenge of whether we would use that power for the common good.
The question isn’t whether AI will transform our lives. It will. AI is already changing how we work, how we learn, and how we connect. The question is will it improve the lives of all Canadians, or benefit only a few?
And that’s why we must take a positive, pragmatic, and prudent approach that builds safe, reliable, and sovereign AI for workers, businesses, for Canada and for our allies.
Canadians helped invent modern AI. The foundational ideas behind today’s systems trace through Canadian researchers Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, and Richard Sutton.
That legacy continues through world-class universities, three national AI institutes – Mila in Montréal, Amii in Edmonton, and the Vector Institute just a few blocks away – and more than 3,500 AI companies across the country.
In Canada, we have 150,000 jobs directly in AI and more than 800,000 in broader digital technology. It is Canada’s fastest-growing sector.
Over the past decade alone, AI has contributed $140 billion to the Canadian economy.
Now, as this technological revolution gathers pace, Canada has many of the attributes to help lead it.
We’re an energy superpower. We’re committed to doubling our electricity grid – building on the lowest cost power in the G7 and the second lowest emission power in the broader OECD.
We have the most educated population in the world, including experts with deep expertise in AI, robotics, and quantum. We’re a pluralistic society that works.
We’re a stable, reliable partner in a world that is anything but. But first, we have to be honest about the risks that AI poses to Canadians and the challenges that Canada faces.
Deepfakes, unsafe chatbots, and AI-generated disinformation are becoming more prevalent. The privacy of Canadians is under threat.
Globally, Canada ranks near the bottom of countries in AI training in literacy and trust. Only 12% of Canadian businesses are using AI today. Among small and medium-sized businesses, adoption is even lower.
And we are highly dependent on foreign suppliers for the infrastructure that powers AI – from compute to cloud to data storage.
That creates real risks that foreign entities could access Canadian data, deploy AI products that shape Canadian lives without reflecting our values, and tilt the playing field against Canadian firms while Canada lacks the leverage to push back or the ability to control.
It also creates the risk that, as with other forms of integration – from financial payments to supply chains – AI could be weaponised against us.
To ensure AI benefits every Canadian, we need an approach that reaches every Canadian.
We need a strategy that helps our workers and businesses adopt AI and compete globally; a strategy that ensures Canadians have Canadian choices in the AI tools they use, and that builds on the foundation of trust and safety.
We need a strategy that not only addresses these challenges, but also builds on ways in which Canadian businesses are using AI. I’ll give some examples.
In Halifax, Dr. Robert Chen and his team at Kardio Diagnostix are using AI to screen heart murmurs in infants, leading to lower unnecessary referrals and shorter wait times.
In Saskatoon, the Canadian company Croptimistic is using AI to transform soil mapping so there’s less fertilizer that’s used.
In Peterborough, AI-powered traffic lights are reducing congestion, resulting in 40% fewer vehicle delays and 20% fewer emissions.
Prosperity and sovereignty in the age of AI belong to those nations that can build, adopt, and govern AI on their own terms; nations that encourage the deployment of AI to make the lives of their citizens better.
And, to that end, Minister Solomon, colleagues – we are pleased to launch Canada’s new AI for All Strategy.
That’s AI governed by Canadian values, AI that is accountable to Canadians, and AI that serves all Canadians.
Our strategy has three guiding principles.
The first is trust.
We will protect your data, your privacy, and your children.
Second, opportunity.
We will empower Canadian workers, Canadian businesses, and Canadian students with the tools to expand their knowledge, their expertise, and their futures.
And, finally, sovereignty.
We will reinforce Canadian sovereignty so Canadians can make their own choices on how AI is built, governed, and used.
In the virtual world just as in the physical world, we will be masters of our own house.
The AI for All Strategy is targeted to generate an additional $200 billion in economic growth.
This could lead to the creation of 250,000 AI-related jobs over the next five years and increase the current AI adoption rate – from one in 10 today to nearly two-thirds by 2034.
The strategy’s focus on adoption underscores that, for Canadians to truly benefit from AI, everyone must have the opportunity to learn how to use it.
To use AI, Canadians need to be able to trust it. Trust that our children will be protected, our fellow citizens will be respected, our culture and languages will be not just preserved, but enhanced, and our democracy will be preserved.
Canadians need to be able to develop the trust that AI will be governed in ways that reflect our values, to trust that they will share in its benefits.
And, for AI to benefit Canadians, it needs to create new opportunities for us and be anchored in infrastructure that Canadians can control.
Under our strategy, the government will introduce new legislation, regulations, and standards to protect your data, your privacy, and your children.
We will modernise Canada’s privacy laws and online safety legislation, ensuring that they are fit for an AI-driven world.
We will expand the Canadian AI Safety Institute with advanced research to evaluate AI models and track emerging risks.
We’ll table consumer privacy legislation that ensures AI systems safeguard children’s information from exploitation and harm.
And we will make the development of child safety standards a priority at next month’s G7 summit in Évian.
We will also enshrine Canadians’ fundamental right to privacy, including by creating protections against harmful practices such as deepfakes and surveillance pricing, so that technology doesn’t outpace our ability to safeguard ourselves.
The second thing we will do, the most exciting, and we’re already seeing examples in this research network, is we will empower all Canadians with new opportunities to participate in and benefit from AI.
So, we’re launching a National AI Literacy Initiative, offering training to all Canadians across the country, in classrooms, workplaces, libraries, and community centres.
With free and trustworthy AI learning kits, including courses and modules, Canadians will better understand AI, be able to use it safely and confidently, and put it to work in their own lives.
The approach will also help identify biases and misinformation and give Canadians the AI tools to learn and to help with their careers.
As we adopt AI more broadly, there will be significant demands for Canadian workers who have the knowledge and the know-how to use this technology effectively.
So, a farmer who needs a manager with AI expertise to oversee exactly how much to plant, to water, and to fertilise.
The factory owner who needs an AI specialist to streamline machine data, so the floor runs smoother and faster.
To ensure that Canada is ready to meet that demand and to train up the next generation, we’ll create over 90,000 AI-related job opportunities for young Canadians, including through the Student Work Placement Program, Canada Summer Jobs, Mitacs, and the Skills for Success Program.
We’ll invest in training and upskilling for workers at every stage of their careers, from students to mid-career professionals to frontline workers.
And we will ensure that every post-secondary student has access to trusted AI agents – whether they’re in art schools, computer science labs, or whether they’re training to be electricians or carpenters – so that our next generation has world-class, reliable tools on which to build and learn.
We’re going to use the Business Development Bank of Canada’s LIFT program to help Canadian SMEs access financing to adopt AI tools in their operations.
We’re providing $500 million through the Regional AI Initiative to expand AI adoption, commercialisation, and readiness across the country.
And we’ll expand affordable sovereign compute for Canadian SMEs with an additional $700 million in the Compute Access fund. So, Canadian AI adoption will be prudent, pragmatic, and pro-worker.
Crucially, we will ensure AI reflects Canadian identity, values, and culture.
That means strengthening the French language in AI systems, and ensuring tools reflect and excel in both official languages.
That means supporting Indigenous-led AI initiatives, protecting Indigenous languages and knowledge, and enabling self-determination in how AI is developed and used.
The third part of our strategy is to ensure that Canada controls its AI sovereignty.
Just as in our Defence Industrial Strategy, we will follow a Build-Partner-Buy Framework.
So, first, we will build in Canada and direct procurements for sovereign capabilities towards Canadian firms first.
Where we can’t build, we will partner with like-minded allies to attract investment and integrate supply chains.
And, only after exhausting these options, will we buy from abroad.
So, starting with focusing on building in Canada, it’s observed that Canada is one of only four countries in the world with a large language model.
That means, amongst other things, that the data that Canadians share through their businesses and public services can be processed and governed within Canada under Canadian laws and standards. It safeguards our digital sovereignty and our national security.
And, with this foundation, Canada will build a world-leading public AI supercomputer – giving researchers and businesses access to secure, high-performance, compute power for their greatest innovations.
We’ll also create a Canadian Tech Growth Fund – a $500-million vehicle to take equity stakes in high-potential AI firms, helping Canadian companies to succeed globally while remaining proudly Canadian. We will expand sovereign compute and cloud infrastructure, reducing our reliance on foreign providers.
Now, today, let’s be clear. Most of our data that’s used in AI goes across our border or is governed by the privacy regimes of other countries.
And that’s one of the reasons why we will back Canadian AI talent with nearly $350 million to expand our institutes in Montréal, here in Toronto, and in Edmonton to increase AI research and recruit the best talent – from engineering and mathematics to health and agriculture.
Now, as in the physical world, it’s not just what we build, it’s how we build. We’ll build sustainably, linking new data centre development with expanding clean energy and robust environmental standards.
We’ll build inclusively, in full partnership with Indigenous Peoples.
As I said, we’ll support Indigenous-led AI research – leveraging programs from Canadian Heritage, the National Research Council, and industry partners like Mila – and we will build in solidarity with Canadian workers, unions, and post-secondary institutions.
Where we can’t build alone here in Canada, we will partner with like-minded allies.
In one year, Canada has secured 20 economic and security partners – 12 of which are in AI.
One of those landmark initiatives is the Sovereign Technology Alliance, which will deepen our collaboration with trusted allies, starting with Germany, in order to share AI, research, talent, investment, and infrastructure.
We’ll use our complementary strengths to build a dense web of partnerships from Europe and Asia to Australia and the Middle East.
Only after exhausting these options, will we look to buy from abroad.
Even then, we will ensure that the maximum benefits are returned to Canada throughout the value chain, including leveraging the Buy Canadian policy to provide domestic scale-ups.
The most crucial objective of our strategy is to ensure that AI works for Canadians, and that’s why we’re launching an AI Missions Program, which will take Canadian AI out of the lab and put it to work on real problems.
Real problems such as those we’ve just seen solved here at UHN.
We will bring together companies, health systems, governments, and community partners to move ambitious ideas into practical use faster.
And our first mission, which is why we’re here, is to deploy $200 million to improve health care with projects driven by the health care sector. They could include reducing ER wait times, expanding access to primary care, reducing the administrative burdens on physicians and caregivers, and improving surgical methods.
Nearly three quarters of European Union countries are already using AI-assisted diagnostics to support medical imaging and to detect disease.
We are harnessing a transformative technology to improve the lives of Canadians.
And we are expanding VITAL, a Canadian health data platform that uses AI to connect hundreds of thousands of hospital data points – from imaging, medication records, and patient vitals to fuel breakthroughs in how we predict, prevent, and treat disease.
And we will soon look at similar projects for energy, agriculture, and transportation.
So, let me close by recognising, as Minister Solomon did, that too often AI is talked about – including by those who are developing it and building the infrastructure to support it – as if AI were an end in itself.
Too seldom is it connected to people and for people. Our AI for All Strategy, inspired by UHN, is designed to put Canadians back in control, to build trust, to seize opportunities, and above all, to harness AI to improve lives, and, indeed, to save them.
In operating rooms just down the hall, surgeons are using AI-assisted imaging to identify arterial structures during complex procedures – gallbladder, lungs, and beyond.
In one of the world’s most demanding jobs, with the most highly trained and skilled specialists, AI is making them even better: even more precise, even more confident – all because of a tool that did not exist five years ago.
With our new strategy, that’s how we will help shape how we use AI to ensure that, in Canada, AI works for all Canadians all of the time.
To build a Canada that’s not just strong, not just intelligent, but good.
And with that, I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much.