Thank you, everyone, and good morning. I'm James Beer, CEO of Qu Data Centres.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to contribute to your timely study on the opportunities, risks and regulation of AI in Canada's strategic industries.
To begin with, let me introduce Qu Data Centres. Qu Data Centres is a Canadian-incorporated entity headquartered in Canada, backed by Canadian and international investors and managed by InfraRed Capital Partners, a Sun Life company. Our corporate structure is anchored in Canadian jurisdiction, and I'm proud to say that we have one of the only fully Canadian management teams in the industry.
Every facility is operated here on Canadian soil and by Canadian hands. We are sovereign by design and serve clients from across strategic sectors, including financial institutions, energy companies, health care providers and government agencies. Our nine facilities are strategically located across Ontario and Alberta with proven infrastructure and available capacity. We are poised to invest and drive growth domestically, and ready to scale our operations, deploy new workloads and support long-term growth.
We firmly believe that collaboration between government and industry is vital to building Canada's next generation of AI and data infrastructure. Qu is here to power Canadian innovation into the future. We are well positioned to contribute to a cohesive, sovereign nation-building strategy for AI infrastructure.
Qu shares the vision of the federal government for its next AI strategy to “accelerate the development of nation-building AI and data infrastructure, drive economy-wide adoption and help build the strongest economy in the G7.” To help achieve this vision, Qu is pleased to provide the following input and recommendations for consideration by the committee as part of its study.
First—and very importantly—safe AI systems begin with the data centres powering those AI services. Like in all strategic sectors, prioritizing domestic capacity will be key. How the federal government defines sovereign AI is one of the most crucial elements of the forthcoming strategy and legislative framework.
Qu Data Centres recommends that the federal government define sovereign AI to mean that the corporation or entity has the following attributes: data centres on Canadian soil; Canadian employees; a fully Canadian management team; and is an entity that utilizes Canadian networks, adheres to cybersecurity practices that protect its data, prioritizes Canadian partners for the delivery of services, and recognizes and acknowledges Canadian values in assessing industry participants.
Qu's position is that AI data centres are emerging as strategic and critical domestic infrastructure that already is or will be crucial to all operations of all sectors and services. The current global geopolitical context has heightened awareness about the importance of domestic capacity across core sectors.
With respect to the federal government's forthcoming strategy, Qu strongly encourages the government to prioritize the Canadian sector, aligning with this definition of sovereign AI, over foreign-controlled or foreign-located entities. A critical component of Canada's next AI strategy must be enabling the building and scaling of our domestic sovereign AI data centre capacity and infrastructure.
To this end, Qu recommends two key components as part of the next strategy and legislative framework. The first is that strategic sectors such as banking, energy, health care and defence be required to utilize sovereign data centre infrastructure and services. The second component is the delivery of new funding and tax incentives that are specifically designed to attract investment that will scale Canada's domestic sovereign AI infrastructure.
Finally, strengthening the federal government's leadership through the renewal of Canada's AI strategy will be a crucial step in scaling Canadian champions and attracting new investment.
In closing, these recommendations support aligning the sector with the federal government's priorities on digital sovereignty, security and economic growth.
Qu Data Centres appreciates the opportunity to contribute to the committee's important and timely study on AI, and would be pleased to respond to any questions to support this work.
Thank you.