{"id":638168,"date":"2026-04-30T08:06:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638168\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T08:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:06:20","slug":"whats-in-the-ai-strategy-spring-economic-updates-6-pillars-offer-clues-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638168\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in the AI strategy? Spring economic update\u2019s \u20186 pillars\u2019 offer clues – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday\u2019s spring economic update<\/a> gave the most clear hints yet on the federal government\u2019s priorities for its long-promised new national artificial intelligence<\/a> strategy, which Ottawa says is coming \u201cshortly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A section of the fiscal update outlines six \u201cpillars\u201d of the strategy that are organized under a unifying vision of \u201cartificial intelligence for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

While they don\u2019t include specific details about how they will be achieved or come with proposed funding, the pillars broadly outline how the government plans to address the myriad issues surrounding AI, from safety to accelerated adoption to digital sovereignty.<\/p>\n

At the top of the list is \u201cprotecting Canadians and safeguarding our democracy,\u201d which acknowledges that the strategy must contend with a Canadian public that has expressed deep skepticism about AI and its growing prominence.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI will only deliver on its promise if Canadians trust it,\u201d the economic statement says. \u201cThat requires modern privacy and online safety laws, strong national AI safety capabilities, and secure government systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A spokesperson for AI Minister Evan Solomon\u2019s<\/a> office told Global News that the reference to \u201cmodern privacy\u201d laws includes protections for copyright and intellectual property, as well as data sovereignty, that will be covered in forthcoming legislation to update the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).<\/p>\n

The spring economic statement \u201cisn\u2019t detailing each aspect of the AI strategy as it will be released shortly,\u201d spokesperson Sonia Ouslis said in an email.<\/p>\n

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Experts speaking with Global News this month<\/a> have expressed concern that, in his first year as AI minister, Solomon has prioritized the potential for AI adoption and growing the Canadian AI industry over the associated safety risks posed by the technology and products like AI chatbots.<\/p>\n

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Sonja Solomun, deputy director of the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University, said placing safety and trust as the first pillar shows a \u201cdiscernible shift\u201d in priorities.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think AI will only earn public trust if that safety comes first, and I think that\u2019s the shift in recognition that we\u2019re seeing, not as an afterthought to economic growth,\u201d she said in an interview Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the language in the statement around the pillars is really right, but implementation is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tThe other five pillars outlined in the economic update are:\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cEmpowering Canadians\u201d \u2014 providing access to AI education and skills training and \u201crepresenting and including Canadian voices, languages and culture\u201d;\u201cPowering AI adoption for shared prosperity\u201d \u2014 supporting \u201caccelerated adoption among small- and -medium-sized enterprises\u201d and within the public service, while promising \u201cpro-worker, industrial AI technologies\u201d;\u201cBuilding the Canadian sovereign AI foundation\u201d \u2014 supporting the building of \u201csovereign compute infrastructure at scale\u201d that will be \u201cunder Canadian governance,\u201d while growing the Canadian AI research and talent pool;\u201cScaling Canadian champions\u201d \u2014 unlocking \u201cgrowth capital\u201d and leveraging government as a \u201cstrategic anchor customer\u201d to help scale \u201cgreat AI companies in Canada\u201d; and\u201cBuilding trusted partnerships and global alliances \u2014 by working with \u201ca variety\u201d of partners, Ottawa will seek to \u201calign standards, co-invest in innovation, and help Canadian companies access global markets\u201d while shaping an AI ecosystem \u201canchored in democratic values.\u201d\t<\/p>\n

Solomun said seeing the overall vision for the AI strategy was \u201creally encouraging,\u201d but noted the full details are \u201clong overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She said the language in the economic statement still had notable omissions, particularly around regulations for AI chatbots and transparency for how the government will hold AI companies accountable.<\/p>\n

Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller has promised an updated online harms bill will cover AI chatbots as well as social media, particularly surrounding protections for children, but has not said when that legislation will be introduced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on it,\u201d he told reporters Wednesday outside the Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa when asked if the bill will be ready this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to guarantee anything,\u201d he continued. \u201cI can guarantee you that we will be taking care of making sure kids are kept safe. That\u2019s for sure. The timing of an introduction of a bill isn\u2019t something I\u2019ll be sharing with you today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Solomun noted Canada is the only G7 country without some form of modern online harms legislation.<\/p>\n

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She added that young people should be at the centre of the AI strategy and any related legislation, both in terms of harms protection and ensuring they benefit from AI as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, AI adoption and safety is going to affect young people, young Canadians, way more than any other groups,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir voices need to be front and centre in that strategy and trust is going to really depend \u2026 on that particular group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomun added she also wants to see details on climate sustainability plans as Canada rapidly scales up massive energy-expending data centres.<\/p>\n

The pillar on \u201cbuilding the Canadian sovereign AI foundation\u201d notes infrastructure will be \u201csustainable\u201d as well as \u201cresilient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no sort of real framework for what the environmental costs of that growth are,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that\u2019s a major misstep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday\u2019s spring economic update gave the most clear hints yet on the federal government\u2019s priorities for its long-promised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,91371,276,277,49,48,714,212011,64,61],"class_list":["post-638168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-ai-strategy","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-politics","tag-spring-economic-update","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}