{"id":713373,"date":"2026-06-04T00:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/713373\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T00:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:19:17","slug":"canadas-ai-strategy-to-be-released-as-survey-suggests-public-trust-gap-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/713373\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s AI strategy to be released as survey suggests public trust gap – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government is set to release its highly anticipated artificial intelligence<\/a> strategy Thursday morning after months of delays and hints at what it might contain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The strategy\u2019s release will come on the heels of a new Ipsos report released Wednesday, which found Canada remains among the least enthusiastic countries in the world about AI \u2014 and that Canadians\u2019 excitement has dropped since last year.<\/p>\n

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon says the strategy will be titled \u201cAI for All\u201d and will focus on unleashing the economic potential of AI while building Canadians\u2019 trust in the technology \u2014 which the Ipsos report suggests is also at a global low.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means AI is going to benefit every Canadian, no matter where you live, no matter what you do, no matter what age you are,\u201d Solomon said in a social media video posted Wednesday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s a lot of anxiety and a lot of excitement about AI. Our plan is very practical, it\u2019s very pragmatic. It\u2019s not about being a cheerleader, it\u2019s not about throwing pitchforks either. It\u2019s about building a transparent, practical plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

A government source told Global News on background that the strategy will contain \u201ca big push on adoption\u201d of AI across Canadian private and public sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroad pillars\u201d of the plan will include ensuring sovereign control of AI technology and \u201charnessing the opportunity this new technology presents,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s spring economic statement in April outlined six \u201cpillars\u201d<\/a> the AI strategy will be based on, with \u201cprotecting Canadians and safeguarding our democracy\u201d at the top of the list.<\/p>\n

Other pillars include providing access to AI literacy and skills training, accelerated AI adoption, supporting the building of \u201csovereign compute infrastructure at scale,\u201d and international co-operation.<\/p>\n

Solomon told reporters Tuesday the strategy will be followed by new legislation on online harms and updates to Canada\u2019s private sector privacy laws. The government source said the strategy will also have details on measures to criminalize sexualized AI-generated deepfake images.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have \u2026 comprehensive legislation that will make sure that we\u2019re protecting children first and foremost \u2026 Canadians\u2019 privacy and Canadians\u2019 data,\u201d Solomon said.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Solomon has said<\/a> the strategy will also consider the technology\u2019s impacts on the labour market.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:16
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBusiness Matters: Solomon says federal AI strategy will address jobs impact\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

NDP parliamentary leader Don Davies said Tuesday\u00a0the potential for AI to create mass unemployment if left unchecked, as well as mounting safety concerns around tools like AI chatbots, requires the government to move more swiftly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our government is asleep at the switch, as it were, because I think that technology is moving much more rapidly and we don\u2019t have any guardrails,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can harness the best parts of AI and use that technology for positive purposes, but at the same time I think it\u2019s \u2026 completely unregulated and terribly dangerous if we don\u2019t get some guardrails up on it soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tIpsos finds Canadians’ AI enthusiasm falling\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Ipsos\u2019s annual AI Monitor report<\/a>, released Wednesday, surveyed 32 countries on attitudes around AI and found Canadians remain among the least-trusting and least-enthusiastic populations when it comes to the technology.<\/p>\n

The report found the number of Canadians who expressed excitement about AI products and services actually fell five points since last year, to just 26 per cent.<\/p>\n

Canada topped the list of countries whose citizens felt nervous about AI, with 67 per cent saying so \u2014 17 points above the 32-country average.<\/p>\n

Ipsos also found Canada had the lowest share of people among all countries surveyed who believe AI will improve their country\u2019s economy (14 per cent) or the job market (11 per cent) in the next three to five years.<\/p>\n

Only 27 per cent of Canadians said they trust companies that use AI will protect their personal data, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

AI industry and research leaders have expressed concern that, in his first year as AI minister,<\/a> Solomon has largely prioritized the potential for AI adoption and growing the Canadian AI industry over the associated safety risks posed by the technology.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:50
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFederal government looks to support Canadian AI industry\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Other experts have since said Solomon and the government appear to have recognized the need to shift those priorities and recognize the gap between low public trust and private sector enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

Shion Guha, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who studies the intersection between AI and government policy, told Global News he\u2019s \u201cvery cautiously optimistic\u201d the strategy will find an appropriate balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s trying to thread a needle with a very small eye hole,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite possible to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way to do that is to figure out what governance frameworks we need to have around AI. Right now we don\u2019t (have those).\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Seeing concrete regulations passed through legislation would go a long way toward building Canadians\u2019 trust, Guha said, rather than \u201cthe government saying, \u2018Please trust us.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Politics
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cJust saying that we have a strategy and different pots of money and different things that different government agencies will do without figuring out those governance pathways will not build trust,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t‘Paradox’ between worker, employer attitudes on AI\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In a separate, forthcoming global study comparing AI attitudes among workers and employers, the AI-powered employment platform Employment Hero\u00a0found just 41 per cent of Canadians feel confident their AI skills are sufficient to compete in the job market.<\/p>\n

Employment Hero released details from the report to Global News ahead of its full release on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The \u201cAI Paradox Report\u201d also found 20 per cent of Canadian business leaders say AI skills are essential when considering prospective employees, while 30 per cent are ranking it ahead of a post-secondary degree as a prerequisite.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Megan Felsing, the company\u2019s head of communications, said in an interview that the AI strategy\u2019s promise of widespread literacy and skills training will be critical to address the report\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:22
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHow AI renders certain types of jobs obsolete and is changing the labour market\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

She noted that, according to the study, 58 per cent of Canadian workers are gaining their AI skills independently through social media platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really interested to see what these training plans actually look like in practice,\u201d Felsing said, particularly if they are available for free.<\/p>\n

She added that the strategy should also provide guidance to employers on how to encourage AI usage in the workplace so that \u201cemployees know that it\u2019s not wrong and it\u2019s not cheating to use AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t‘Economic race’ must be addressed alongside sovereignty\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Richard St-Pierre, a senior advisor on quantum and digital sovereignty at Quebec business technology firm Levio, told Global News that the strategy must also balance AI sovereignty with AI\u2019s economic potential.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

He said pursuing sovereign AI products and infrastructure, while essential,\u00a0shouldn\u2019t come at the expense of harnessing AI to address Canada\u2019s widening productivity gap with other G7 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is viewed as a technology thing, but at the end of the day it\u2019s an economic race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we say we\u2019re going to wait to have a completely sovereign AI Canadian solution before we start that inflection point (of) upward movement, we will continue to lag behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney as well as Solomon have pointed to AI as a key way to improve Canada\u2019s productivity metrics, something St-Pierre also agreed with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot name another big economic activity \u2014 whether it\u2019s manufacturing, airlines, whatever \u2014 that will have that breadth and depth of impact AI will have on productivity and potentially flip the productivity gap in the positive side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where AI is at the forefront.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government is set to release its highly anticipated artificial intelligence strategy Thursday morning after months of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,91371,276,277,49,48,714,64,61],"class_list":["post-713373","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-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713373","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=713373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}