AI for All - What Businesses Need to Know about Canada’s Federal AI Strategy

What new supports can businesses access? 

Funding and Support for AI Adoption 

The plan outlines AI funding opportunities available to businesses. Canada’s “most promising” AI companies will be able to draw from a newly announced $500 million Canadian Tech Growth Fund, and in some cases, the recently established Sovereign Wealth Fund. SMEs will be able to draw from the BDC’s existing $500 million LIFT program to support the integration of AI tools into their operations. Lastly, sector-specific funding will be made available through the AI Missions Program, starting with $200 million of funding to improve health outcomes for Canadians, to be followed with additional sector-specific funding as part of future “missions”. 

AI Training and Skills Development 

The strategy will ensure that all Canadians have access to AI training through a new National AI Literacy Initiative. The strategy also plans to double the number of AI-trained educators in the K-12 education system to more than 3,000. This K-12 focus, coupled with the push to provide 1 million post-secondary students with free AI literacy training, means graduates entering the workforce will arrive with a stronger baseline of AI literacy in the years to come. 

Young Talent and SME support 

In addition to training young professionals, the strategy aims to directly create up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placement opportunities for young Canadians by 2031. The plan states these jobs will help support SMEs and non-profits. 45,000 of these jobs will operate through the Student Work Placement Program and Canada Summer Jobs. 35,000 will operate through initiatives like the Skills for Success Program, and the final 10,000 are linked to the Mitacs ADOPT and AI+X programs. Canada will also invest $50 million over five years to modernize the Job Bank with AI-powered job matching. 

What new laws & programs should business be aware of? 

Attracting and Retaining Global Talent 

The strategy commits to expanding the Global Talent Stream program for highly skilled AI workers to accelerate their entry into the country. Permanent residency measures will also be aligned to support worker retention. In a similar vein, the strategy underlines how the Canadian Tech Growth Fund intends to attract private capital and retain both talent and IP in Canada. In a direct reference to competition with the US market, the plan points to sufficient investment capital as the “key […] to re-attract top Canadian entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley”. 

Modernization of Data Privacy Regulations 

Canada will “modernize new consumer privacy legislation” to “strengthen people’s control over their personal data”. Whether this takes the form of modifications to existing privacy laws like The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), or as new legislation entirely, these changes are expected to have nationwide implications for any businesses in possession of consumer data. While new federal consumer privacy laws will have implications for federally regulated businesses in Quebec currently exempt from the Act Respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector (ARPPIPS), such as airlines, banks, and telecommunications, it is possible that these reforms may have a greater impact on businesses in other provinces than on those in Quebec. 

Regulation of AI Surveillance-Based Pricing  

The strategy commits to strengthen privacy laws to ensure that Canadians’ personal information is not used inappropriately, including for surveillance pricing purposes. This follows the introduction of similar Manitoban legislation introduced in March. Manitoba’s Bill 49 – an amendment to the province’s Business Practices Act – would ban retailers from increasing the price of goods on a consumer-specific basis. While the federal approach has not yet been detailed, Manitoba’s approach would categorize the use of “personalized or algorithmically determined information” to charge higher prices as an unfair business practice, whether in-store or online. 

Improving AI Security and Transparency 

The strategy outlines safety investments such as $50 million into the Canadian AI Safety Institute, along with renewed funding for the Standards Council of Canada’s AI Program. Canada will also accelerate the research, testing and deployment of Canadian technologies for data protection, cyber defence, and for fraud and extortion prevention. AI Transparency requirements will include capabilities such as watermarking AI-generated content and improving clarity as to when Canadians are interacting directly with AI systems - related automated-decision transparency obligations already apply to Quebec businesses under Law 25. Building on a similar amendment to the EU AI Act, Canada’s strategy addresses the increasing harm of deepfakes, committing to empowering Canadians with legal tools to fight them, building on the federal Protecting Victims Act introduced in December 2025. 

Digital Sovereignty and Canada’s AI Infrastructure 

The government’s strategy aims to provide independence through developing and owning its own AI infrastructure. Through a “build-partner-buy” approach, Ottawa is prioritizing the development of sovereign AI infrastructure under Canadian control, while partnering with trusted allies and relying on existing market solutions only where appropriate. Also notable for SMEs is the commitment to build a world-leading public supercomputer, giving SMEs access to secure, sovereign, high-performance compute that would otherwise be out of reach. Currently, companies train models on foreign platforms, store sensitive data outside Canadian jurisdiction and operate on infrastructure subject to foreign legal regimes. In that sense, AI sovereignty is not just a national policy objective but is increasingly becoming a practical business issue tied to data governance and long-term strategic autonomy. 

What other implications emerge from AI for All? 

A Certification Framework for AI Systems 

The strategy introduces the Canada Trusted AI Certification program to help Canadians identify “trustworthy” AI products in the marketplace. In practice, this will create a two-tier system for AI products: those approved by the Canadian government, and those on the outskirts. The plan does not elaborate on how this certification system will function, explain how many AI agents the federal government intends to certify, nor under what conditions a certification would expire or be revoked. 

Strengthened Support for Open-Source AI Development 

The strategy raises concern with the direction the global AI market is heading toward, where reliance upon a small number of proprietary AI systems continues to grow. To increase transparency, allow for structural independence and reduce the need for vendor lock-in, Canada will lead a global, multi-stakeholder effort to build and sustain open-source AI development in the public interest. This effort involves working with a variety of stakeholders including industry, researchers, Canadian AI Institutes and like-minded countries. The inventory and shared library of access tools it aims to establish will be open to SMEs for responsible adoption. 

Preparing for the Next Stage of AI in Canada 

AI for All represents a significant step forward for Canada. The federal government is clearly determined not only to ensure that Canadians meet the global average of AI adoption, but to exceed it. Canada has identified clear areas in which it can become a competitive player,and has built a strategy to keep itself both competitive on the global market, and collaborative with like-minded players. 

Notably, the strategy stops short of a binding, EU-style AI act in the vein of Bill C-27, relying instead on privacy reform, targeted-harm rules and voluntary certification, as well as meaningful support for trust and adoption. Privacy law reform, surveillance pricing restrictions, and the proposed AI certification framework are the areas most likely to require a business response in the near term. SMEs in particular should take note of the funding and placement programs designed specifically for them, as well as the incoming cohort of AI-literate graduates and young professionals the strategy aims to produce. 

At its core, the strategy positions Canada as a country that wants to lead in AI not just through research, but through responsible, human-centred adoption – one where workers, businesses, and communities share in the benefits. Whether that vision is realized will depend on execution, but the direction is clear: Canada is betting on Canadians, envisioning a people-centered AI economy, that draws on competitive advantages setting the country apart on the global stage. 

Supporting Your Organization in AI Adoption 

To learn more about the implications of this strategy for your organization or to discuss your artificial intelligence initiatives, please contact Misha Benjamin or Paul Gagnon. Our team supports businesses in the adoption, governance, and legal oversight of AI. 

This article is also the result of the collaboration of Jonathan Ferguson and Yassin Abdalla, our law students at BCF.