Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to appear today.
You're studying artificial intelligence. Let me start by clarifying something that is often blurred in policy discussions: AI and quantum are distinct technologies. Grouping them as a single category creates real risk in both policy and execution. AI is about learning from data, identifying patterns, making predictions and automating decisions using today's computing hardware. Quantum is categorically different. It's a fundamentally different way of processing information on new hardware, making certain classes of problems approachable in entirely new ways, including problems that are effectively out of reach today. Quantum also includes sensing and communications, enabling new ways to detect, navigate and secure our world.
For this discussion, I'll focus mainly on quantum computing. If AI is about extracting insight from data, quantum computing is about expanding what is computationally possible. These are distinct technologies with different capabilities, timelines, risks and policy needs. If we group them together wholesale, we risk misjudging those risks, misapplying regulations and missing the specific opportunities and vulnerabilities each presents.
They're also complementary. AI is accelerating quantum development. The future of compute is not replacement but convergence—with AI, high-performance computing and quantum computing working in concert. As AI scales, limits are emerging in energy, cost and sheer compute. Quantum computing offers, over time, potential paths through some of those constraints.
Other countries are already making coordinated investments in this convergence. Canada has the ingredients to lead—strength in AI, a world-class quantum ecosystem, deep computing expertise—but today we lack a fully integrated strategy that looks across these technologies rather than treating them in isolation and fully leverages our quantum strengths. That means integrating and scaling Canada's quantum champions as a core part of our frontier compute strategy.
Let me turn now to an issue that cuts across everything you're studying: cybersecurity. Quantum and AI are on converging timelines that already threaten the integrity of our systems today. AI is already changing the nature of cyber-attacks. At the same time, adversaries are harvesting encrypted data today—government communications, financial records, sensitive intellectual property—with the expectation of decrypting it once quantum computers mature. This is not a future threat. It's a present one.
Canada has taken an important step. In June 2025, the Canadian centre for cybersecurity released its road map for migration to post-quantum cryptography. Departmental migration plans were due this month, effectively by the end of today. High-priority government systems must be completed by 2031. The question now is execution, because this isn't just a migration. It's a generational opportunity to strengthen our cryptographic foundations, making them more agile and resilient against a rapidly evolving threat landscape.
The cyber centre's road map covers federal IT infrastructure, but Canada's economic and national security depends on a far broader ecosystem—critical infrastructure, financial systems, supply chains and the small and medium-sized enterprises across them. In an interconnected system like digital infrastructure, the weakest link defines the risk.
Government must now clearly signal, with urgency, that this transition extends across the entire economy, not just federal departments. That means using procurement already identified in the road map to pull the market forward. It means extending expectations to critical infrastructure and ensuring that Canada is equipped to execute—not just to set direction, but to build the capacity and coordination to act. If we get this right, we do more than mitigate the quantum threat. We build a foundation of trust that underpins AI adoption, quantum deployment, economic resilience and national security.
Many Canadian firms are leaders in developing the quantum-safe solutions required. This is both a security imperative and a commercial opportunity.
I have three points to leave you with.
First, AI and quantum are distinct technologies and must be treated as such in policy and regulation while recognizing their evolving convergence.
Second, the future of compute lies in the convergence of AI and quantum. Canada has the ingredients to lead if we move at pace to scale our quantum strengths so that early leadership translates into ensuring advantage.
Third, on cybersecurity, federal plans were due this month. The window for preparation is now. This committee can ensure that execution and accountability follow across government and the entire Canadian economy.
I look forward to your questions.