Canada’s AI strategy promises thousands of jobs, increased adoption

Prime Minister Mark Carney launched ‘AI for All,’ a new national AI strategy for Canada. Over the next five years, the strategy is going to introduce new legislation, investments and programs to ensure that AI is adopted responsibly in a way that serves Canadians.

The AI for All Strategy “targets an additional $200 billion of economic growth to create 250,000 new AI-related jobs over the next five years.” It also seeks to increase AI adoption from over 12 to 60 per cent by 2034. The strategy aims to offer 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placement opportunities for young Canadians to make the industry more competitive.

Further, the AI strategy includes strengthening protections for Canadians’ personal information against harmful practices like deepfakes, surveillance pricing and an online safety regime that protects social media and chatbot users. Additionally, the government aims to improve AI transparency so Canadians are equipped to use AI safely.

However, it’s worth noting that the strategy doesn’t specifically outline what actions the government will use to keep Canadians safe. It does note the country will invest $50 million to expand the Canadian AI Safety Institute’s ability to track risks, offer advanced technical research and better evaluate AI models.

AI supports for education and businesses

The strategy also calls for the government to create a National AI Literacy Initiative offering entry-level AI training for all Canadians. The AI literacy training will reach 1 million entry-level post-secondary students and train more than 3,000 educators with AI learning kits in their classrooms. AI learning will include practical courses and sector-relevant modules and will be free. Additionally, the strategy wants to provide access to AI agents for every post-secondary student in STEM and the arts.

It’s also poised to help small and medium-sized businesses adopt AI to support workers, raise productivity, and help sectors such as health, energy, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, robotics, and government services.

The Canadian Government will also launch an AI Missions Program to help accelerate the adoption of AI in diagnostics, patient care and system efficiency, aiming to deliver faster, better care for Canadians and strengthen Canada’s life sciences and health innovation ecosystem.

Canada has been one of the slowest countries to adopt AI

Carney’s government created this new strategy as it has found Canada to be one of the slowest countries to adopt AI at scale.  The strategy reads, “This gap risks undermining public trust, driving Canadian talent and startups abroad, and leaving critical parts of our AI ecosystem under foreign control. With the global AI market projected to reach U.S. $4.8 trillion by 2033, Canada has a limited but real opportunity to ensure AI works for all Canadians – to harness this technology to create jobs, protect Canadians, and strengthen our prosperity.”

One of the ways AI for All will reinforce sovereignty is by building a public AI supercomputer and investing in sovereign compute and cloud infrastructure with high-performance computing.

Back in May, the Carney government said that it was making AI a cornerstone and by 2029, the government plans to cut 28,000 federal service positions to save $60 billion over the next several years. And a previous report indicates that the country has already spent more than $800 million on AI contracts since 2023.

But for all the plans in the government’s AI strategy, it’s also frustratingly vague and leaves many questions about how it will achieve the goals. In particular, the pledge to create jobs seems far fetched as AI is currently a top reason for massive layoffs. There also weren’t many details around how the government plans to protect Canadians from AI disruptions.

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Source: Canadian Government