Prime Minister Mark Carney stepped to the podium in Toronto on Thursday and laid out a plan that marks a sharp turn for Ottawa. Canada will spend more than C$2.3 billion to push artificial intelligence into everyday business use, train citizens on the technology and, most strikingly, take ownership stakes in its most promising AI companies.
The strategy, titled AI for All, sets ambitious targets. Government officials want 60 percent of Canadian businesses using AI tools by 2034. That number sits at 12 percent today. They project the effort could generate up to 250,000 new jobs by 2031 and add as much as C$200 billion to economic output. But the document also reveals worry. Canada has watched too many homegrown successes head south for deeper pockets and bigger markets.
So this time Ottawa plans to act like an investor. A new C$500 million Canadian Tech Growth Fund will supply growth capital. It will also allow the government to buy equity in select AI firms. The goal is to keep those companies rooted in Canada, build what the strategy calls national champions and give ordinary Canadians a share of the upside.
Bloomberg first detailed the equity approach. The strategy document itself pulls no punches. “Canada must adopt policies similar to those of France, Japan, and now the United States, and take equity stakes in its best technology companies to cultivate and sustain their growth in Canada and around the world, to secure its AI supply chain, and to ensure that Canadians also share the dividends of successful Canadian champions.”
Carney reinforced the message. Any country paying attention is moving to secure its own computing capacity, he said. That does not shut out American firms. It does mean Canada writes its own rules and grows its physical infrastructure at home.
The announcement builds on years of earlier work. Ottawa launched the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy in 2017 with C$125 million to create three national institutes. Those hubs helped establish Canada as a research leader. Talent followed. Yet compute costs soared. Many startups still fled to the United States. Recent budgets tried to close the gap. The 2024 package delivered C$2.4 billion focused on infrastructure. The 2025 budget added C$1.75 billion to attract private capital.
Now the government mixes those pieces into one coordinated push. The Globe and Mail reports the C$2.3 billion envelope covers training, adoption programs and startup support. Hundreds of millions will flow into the existing AI Compute Access Fund, which currently holds C$300 million. That money helps small and medium-sized enterprises buy time on domestic supercomputers. Another C$500 million from regional development agencies will target broader business uptake. A separate C$500 million initiative through the Business Development Bank of Canada will finance AI tools for smaller firms.
Public supercomputing gets a boost too. Up to C$1 billion will expand government-owned systems. Another C$700 million through the AI Compute Challenge seeks private-sector proposals for new data centers, taking advantage of Canada’s cheap power and cold climate. The strategy also earmarks funds for the three national AI institutes, CIFAR research chairs and an AI Safety Institute.
Skills form a central thread. The plan promises free AI literacy training for all Canadians. Libraries, community organizations and schools will deliver it. One million post-secondary students are a priority. CanCode receives C$30 million to reach younger learners. The strategy talks of training 3,000 educators and assessing how best to upskill workers whose jobs will change.
Yet experts voice caution. CBC News, which obtained a draft days earlier, notes the document offers few concrete timelines on new safety rules. AI Minister Evan Solomon acknowledged the scale of the task. “You’ve got to approach something of the size and scope of the AI transformation with a sense of humility. We know that we can’t solve every issue here in one strategy.”
Protection measures lean on updates to privacy laws and online harms legislation already in progress. The plan calls for watermarking, certification standards and greater transparency. It also envisions government as an anchor customer. Procurement rules will favor Canadian AI solutions where possible. A Digital Transformation Office will test and buy from domestic providers.
The Logic highlights the shift toward commercialization. Previous strategies emphasized research. This one stresses turning ideas into products that stay in Canada. It references an earlier exclusive report on the growth fund and notes the equity mechanism breaks from Ottawa’s usual grants and loans.
Data sovereignty runs through the text. Canadian information should stay in Canadian hands when possible. The strategy proposes a multinational sovereign technology alliance with like-minded democracies. Canada already partnered with Germany. The idea is to pool compute, talent and buying power rather than depend on a handful of foreign giants.
Carney’s sovereign wealth fund, seeded with C$25 billion, could take positions alongside the Tech Growth Fund. Details remain under consultation. Still, the signal is clear. Government wants skin in the game.
Reaction split along predictable lines. Supporters see pragmatism. Canada produced world-class AI researchers but watched value migrate elsewhere. Direct investment and patient capital might change that pattern. Critics worry about picking winners. They question whether bureaucrats can spot the next breakout company. Some industry voices on X called the equity move overdue. Others warned it could scare off private investors who dislike sharing cap tables with Ottawa.
The numbers tell part of the story. Canada holds strong research talent. It lags in translating that talent into scaled businesses. Compute remains expensive and scarce domestically. Adoption stays low outside a few sectors. The strategy confronts each gap. Whether the funding proves enough, whether the equity stakes deliver returns, whether literacy programs reach workers who need them most. Those tests lie ahead.
Solomon’s humility comment feels apt. The document reads like a starting point, not a finished blueprint. It layers new money on existing programs. It sets deadlines for 2030, 2031 and 2034. And it bets that a mix of grants, loans, equity and procurement can keep more of the AI revolution inside Canadian borders.
Success will show in head counts at domestic AI labs, in adoption rates among manufacturers and hospitals, and in whether flagship companies choose to list, expand and pay taxes at home. Failure will look like more talent drain, more reliance on foreign models and another round of strategy documents in five years. For now, Ottawa has placed its chips. The table is open.
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