AI minister says feds might tie AI and digital funding to Buy Canadian rules.<\/p>\n
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Canadian AI minister Evan Solomon stopped by Toronto innovation hub OneEleven yesterday to share more details and updated timelines for the Government of Canada\u2019s AI and Buy Canadian strategies, which are both expected to launch in 2026.<\/p>\n
The feds committed nearly $926 million over five years in Budget 2025<\/a> to fund the development of large-scale sovereign public AI infrastructure. However, $800 million of that will come from the previous Liberal government\u2019s Sovereign AI Compute Strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government has the opportunity to be a force for nation-building by becoming our own best customer.\u201d<\/p>\n AI minister Evan Solomon<\/p>\n When asked by BetaKit why the latest budget was light on new funding for AI during a media scrum following his remarks, Solomon said the Government of Canada wanted to \u201cfix some key things\u201d first, including enabling the buildout of local data centres to meet domestic computing needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once that happens, Solomon said the feds will reevaluate what comes next. \u201cThere will be other steps along the way,\u201d he added, noting that he also expects Canada\u2019s new Defence Industrial Strategy to play a role in the country\u2019s \u201cAI infrastructure story.\u201d<\/p>\n The government intends to use the budget to enable Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) investments in AI infrastructure projects. It also grants Solomon the power to\u00a0engage with industry to identify promising AI infrastructure initiatives and enter into memoranda of understanding (MOU) with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Solomon told the media that the feds are also considering forcing companies to buy from Canadian suppliers when they receive government funding for AI and digital technologies.<\/p>\n Solomon has signalled<\/a> that the feds are interested in signing more broad MOU agreements, like the one it struck with Cohere<\/a>, to expedite the procurement process with other qualified Canadian tech firms of strategic importance.<\/p>\n Solomon said that the AI Task Force<\/a> the federal government assembled this fall to help guide its renewed AI strategy has finished its 30-day sprint and submitted recommendations, which it is in\u00a0the process of reviewing.\u00a0<\/p>\n In total, Solomon said the government received 28 submissions from members as well as 11,000 from the public\u2014an Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada record. The feds are using AI to sort through the public data.<\/p>\n RELATED: What\u2019s in #Budget2025 for Canadian tech?<\/a><\/p>\n While the AI minister did not offer a hard timeline for when the government might share those recommendations publicly, Solomon said that he is meeting with task force members over the next two weeks to discuss their submissions and consolidate them.<\/p>\n Solomon expects the launch of the government\u2019s updated AI strategy<\/a> to come next year, given the need to absorb those recommendations.<\/p>\n Solomon also acknowledged that the feds are looking to incentivize domestic data centre construction not just through CIB but also potential financial backstops or compute offtake agreements.<\/p>\n Solomon said that the government is \u201copen to lots of different structures\u201d and has lots of term sheets on the table at the moment. It has a mandate to negotiate, however, it has not yet signed anything.<\/p>\n