Industry and Technology Committee on June 15th, 2026

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Thank you.

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

—including capturing AI chatbots, and today I tabled the protecting privacy and consumer data act.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

I understand. You said that in your previous answers. Thank you. In any case, we would like an answer regarding the protection of works.

The same goes for citizens' data. When the government uses artificial intelligence software to process people's data, what steps will be taken to ensure that the data isn't stolen by artificial intelligence software, that it doesn't end up elsewhere and that it is properly protected?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you for the question.

It's a really important question about protecting Canadians' data. I do appreciate that it might have been.... Literally just before I got here, we tabled the protecting privacy and consumer data act that gives extensive detail about the obligations that all companies will have with regard to protecting children's information and protecting consumers' information: how they have to deal with a chain of custody, what responsibilities they have when they're collecting it, and whether they're collecting it for beneficial and reasonable purposes.

It's a super important question, and I'm glad you've asked it. That is exactly why right after the national AI strategy, AI for all, was tabled, we tabled this new legislation to protect and to make sure that Canadians' data is protected.

Your other question is about, maybe, training and data mining, what's called TDM. There are real concerns about copyright. My colleague Marc Miller is seized with that. There are obviously some ongoing court cases on that. However, the principle of making sure that Canadians are properly compensated for their work remains in place.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Obviously, we have a lot of concerns about protecting the information of citizens and individuals when artificial intelligence software is used by government. If the government uses that kind of software, how can we ensure that such data is protected?

Today, the Quebec minister of labour tabled his guide on the use of artificial intelligence in business. It outlines for example what has to be done to prevent workers from being spied on by artificial intelligence software and to ensure that it helps increase productivity and not replace workers.

Does your strategy include provisions to protect workers who use artificial intelligence software?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

First of all, jobs are a critical part of the strategy on the training and the education.

The member asked about governments. The proper regulations around how AI is used by government, the Treasury Board regulations, are absolutely in force. There's an AI registry that's fully transparent. There are about 413 uses of AI within the government, and there is an AI registry that's very transparent. You can look at that. There are regulations that are very thorough in terms of how AI is used, what humans are in the loop, what kind of transparency and what kinds of disclosures there are any time the government is using AI. That's quite rigorous.

In our strategy, we are making sure that workers are a part of it. I just want to say I meet regularly with labour leaders. Also, we have struck an AI labour advisory council. It will be meeting with me at a minimum of twice a year. We've already met with labour leaders about it to make sure that policies around the development of AI through this strategy and these action items are pro-worker and to make sure that we have workers in mind.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you, Mr. Ste‑Marie.

Mr. Guglielmin, the floor is yours for five minutes, sir.

[Michael Guglielmin, Conservative, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today.

Minister, your AI document commits to ensuring that every post-secondary student has a trusted AI agent. Who decides what a trusted AI agent is and what body gets to make that determination?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

This is a really important aspect of the strategy. We believe that AI for all means that everybody should have access to an AI tool, and that tool should be reliable and trusted. As you know, with the safe social media act and the protecting privacy and consumer data act, we'll be setting up a digital safety commission. It's absolutely crucial that we finally have a commissioner who will oversee the responsibility of how information is treated and what is reliable and what is safe. I will just tell you that this particular item is in development. We are working closely with our national AI institute—

[Michael Guglielmin, Conservative, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Minister, I'm going to interrupt here. Is the government going to have editorial or content authority over these agents through a commissioner who's being set up?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

There are two parts to your question and it's a good one. The first part is, what tool will we use? We'll be consulting with our national AI institute, the Canadian AI safety institute. We will absolutely make sure that any tool we use complies not only with the safe social media act but with making sure that kids' information—in this case they will be post-secondary people—is treated and protected according to the protecting privacy and consumer data act. Absolutely, that's where we're at. We're finally going to have a regulator. We're going to have enforcement, and we're going to have clear lines for this to make sure that whoever provides it will have to abide by those.

[Michael Guglielmin, Conservative, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

You can understand why there would be some concerns. We saw the government use Bill C-11 to give the federal regulator authority over what Canadians see online. Bill C-18 reduced the news availability despite its promise to expand it. How is this government-administered AI agent scheme different in principle from these other interventions?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I think the first principle here is equal access to the tools. You and I both know that.... When I raised my kids there were some kids who had more access to tools and others didn't. We had a digital divide. We had a digital divide in terms of remote communities, like rural communities. First and foremost, this is about making sure everyone has an opportunity—

[Michael Guglielmin, Conservative, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Minister, respectfully—

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

—to have a tool to use if they're at a CEGEP or a university or a college.

[Michael Guglielmin, Conservative, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Respectfully, that's not the question. A lot of these AI agent chatbots already exist. They're free and they're open source. How does a government-directed one that's trusted...? How is that something that is enhancing access when it's already accessible?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

First of all, we welcome that there's lots of accessibility. We want to make sure that all young people have access to something that is safe and reliable.

By the way, some of those things can be expensive. There's a lot of money on compute, and eventually there are charges. There are free models, and then there are not. Some of those models may not be safe for data, so we have to make sure they're safe and compliant.

You mentioned open source. We have to make sure of what's in an open source as well, which is an alternative. By the way, we're interested in open source as well, to make sure that it's reliable and safe. If post-secondary students are using something, I think it behooves us all to make sure that it's reliable, secure and safe.

[Michael Guglielmin, Conservative, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Essentially, you want to determine what the AI agents are spitting back to the post-secondary students who use them.

I want to get another quick question in here.

A new Angus Reid poll shows that 68% of Canadians would oppose large data centres near their homes, and we know that having these data centres is important for the development of AI and AI sovereignty. Your document acknowledges energy and water concerns, but it lacks enforcement mechanisms. Here at this committee, we heard testimony that Canadian data centres operate with no mandatory disclosure regime for energy and water use. Is this something you're willing to consider implementing and putting a lot of onus on?

I ask because companies make commitments that they're not going to use an excessive amount of energy or water and increase the costs to local communities, but there's no enforcement mechanism and no reporting required. Is this something that you guys would be looking to implement?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

First of all, you're asking exactly the right question about transparency around data centres. We need to build Canadian infrastructure. Either we build it or we rent it back from someone else who is going to build it, and Canadians will be charged for it. However, we have to build it right.

Quickly, there are three things.

One is that power allocation is the purview of all the provinces. The provincial regulators allocate it. It's not the federal government that allocates it. I have talked to all of my counterparts to make sure that when they're allocating power—and this is provincial—they should make sure that ratepayers are not paying more. That's a provincial jurisdiction.

When we enter, we have an enabling large sovereign infrastructure fund to use when we are looking at data centres. We have criteria on what we will partner in. You might notice that we've begun a partnership with Telus in British Columbia for three data centres. They're hydroelectric, with a closed-loop water system, which means they reuse the water. The heat is going to be used to heat 150,000 homes. As they say, they want to use every molecule twice. It's transparent, so you're right about all of that, and it's not putting pressure on ratepayers so ratepayers are not paying more.

You're asking the exactly the right questions. We are making sure, from our end, that if the Canadian government is supporting those data centres, they're done right.

[Michael Guglielmin, Conservative, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you, Mr. Guglielmin.

Mr. Bains, I understand you might be splitting time with Mr. Ma. As usual, I'll leave it for you two gentlemen to figure that out. You'll have five minutes.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for your work on this strategy and for working closely with British Columbians and leaders out there on the AI strategy.

I'd like you to expand a bit on public safety and the trust pillars you talked about. Among British Columbians and all Canadians, there are skeptics out there. Specifically, we witnessed a tragic incident in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, that shook a community and our nation. Numerous court cases against AI providers allege that their products have counselled youth to commit harm to themselves or others, so can you talk a bit about the accountability measures that are in place?

In this instance, it was ChatGPT that the youth confided in. She was planning to harm others, but the owners, ChatGPT, didn't act in advance. Could you please expand a bit on that?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I appreciate the question.

Let's just say there is nobody in this room whose heart doesn't go out to the families in Tumbler Ridge. I know this is not a partisan issue. Every one of us here recognizes that we have to protect Canadians and protect kids. Tumbler Ridge is a horrific tragedy that is ongoing for the families and the community, and we took action.

Immediately after we found out the shooter's behaviour had been flagged eight months before by the technical side of OpenAI—in other words, the AI itself brought it up—and it was not escalated, I not only summoned the entire senior team to Ottawa but I spoke to the CEO, Sam Altman. I demanded they work with the Canadian AI safety institute to review all other past incidents to make sure they had escalated them with police and that they have a presence here in Canada with Canadian local law enforcement as opposed to just talking to U.S. enforcement, and that they have mental health experts. All options were on the table.

The Canadian AI safety institute is still working very closely on assessing. In the meantime, we have taken action. We have tabled legislation called the safe social media act. Not only will it restrict access for young people under 16 to social media, but it will include AI chatbots that have a duty to keep children safe, a duty to be responsible and a duty by law to be transparent about that. We are one of the first countries in the world to have any regulation at all on these new technologies called chatbots. We have taken action immediately on that.

That dovetails with what we've just tabled, which is the protecting privacy and consumer data act. That gives all companies, including AI companies, an obligation by law to protect children's information, and it gives citizens the right to see where abuses of information might take place. We have taken protective steps, but we've also doubled the budget of the Canadian AI safety institute. We know that it has to be more robust to make these kinds of assessments.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Richmond East—Steveston, BC]

Thanks.

I want to cede the rest of my time to Mr. Ma.