Ottawa wants way more Canadian businesses using AI, and it’s putting billions behind that goal.
The federal government rolled out a refreshed national AI strategy today, dubbed AI for All. The goal is to build Canada’s own computing power instead of renting it from foreign companies, and get small businesses to actually use AI instead of just poking at it. Right now only 12% of Canadian businesses use AI to make their products or services. Ottawa wants that at 60% by 2034.
“AI is here. The question is whether it will improve the lives of all Canadians or benefit only a few. AI can shorten our emergency room wait times and make a small business more competitive, if it is governed by Canadian values with a clear goal of improving the lives of all Canadians. That’s why we need an ambitious new strategy: AI for All. We will build trust so that all Canadians are empowered to use this technology safely and with confidence. AI that builds Canada strong for all: that is our mission,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney in a statement on Thursday.
A big chunk of the money is about weaning Canada off foreign cloud platforms and offshore chipmaking. The feds are putting more than $2 billion in existing commitments toward domestic computing, including money through the AI Compute Challenge to get large commercial computing running. Some of that goes to a public supercomputer that gives researchers and small businesses secure, high-powered access. There are also public-private deals in the works to build big data centres, with proposals targeting 850 megawatts of compute by 2030 and room to scale up to 2.3 gigawatts later on.
The feds say there are too many promising Canadian companies head south to find funding, so the strategy throws real money at keeping them here. A new $500 million Canadian Tech Growth Fund gives flexible capital to promising firms, and it lets the government take direct equity stakes to keep their IP in the country. Another $500 million expands the Regional AI Initiative through regional development agencies. A further $500 million runs through the Business Development Bank of Canada’s LIFT program to help small and mid-sized businesses get financing for tech.
Small businesses get $700 million in cheaper computing through a bigger Compute Access Fund, and the National AI Institutes get $130 million for commercialization programs like founders-in-residence. The feds are also banking on another $1.75 billion in previously announced money to pull in private venture capital.
A new AI Missions Program starts with $200 million aimed at health outcomes. There’s $100 million to set up a Health Sector Data Space with the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and another $100 million to bring the VITAL clinical data platform into five more provinces.
The Canadian AI Safety Institute gets $50 million to watch for new risks and test frontier models. A $50 million Creative Technology Program backs Canadian creators using digital tools. And $30 million goes to CanCode for digital skills training for kids and teachers.
Here’s an overview of the Ottawa is currently spending and what the new AI spending will entail:
Strip out the money Ottawa already announced, and the strategy’s actual new spending lands at about $2.86 billion. Add everything up with the existing funding and new spending, we’re looking at $6.6 billion total for this AI plan.
The government figures all this could create up to 250,000 jobs by 2031 and bump GDP by 3%. That’s about $200 billion in gains from a more productive workforce, but whether that will play out remains to be seen.
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