Chair and honourable members of the committee, it's a privilege to be here today on behalf of the Information Technology Association of Canada, also known as ITAC, to discuss the review of the Copyright Act.
ITAC is the national voice of Canada's ICT industry, an industry that includes over 37,000 companies, generates over 1.5 million jobs and contributes more than $76 billion to the economy.
In today's world, technology can and is outpacing our laws and regulations, and it's crucial that Canada as a global leader does not fall behind.
Today, I'd like to address how the copyright review will fit into the bigger picture of the digital economy in Canada. I'll focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence, and the ways in which copyright rules and regulations will be impacted.
Copyright plays a crucial role in protecting owners while promoting creativity and innovation, which is vitally important when it comes to the tech sector. The key is finding the balance between protecting the rights of the creator with the ability of users to access and benefit from their creation. The difficulty is maintaining the balance between both ends of the spectrum. Otherwise, the entire balance of the digital economy will suffer. In short, we need to get this policy right.
Let's take a quick look at Canada's technology landscape. This has been an exceptional year of investments in Canadian technology, with unprecedented job growth, sizable FDI and several Canadian tech firms going global.
In today's economy, a tech job could be in almost any sector. Many tech-related jobs are no longer just about computer science or programming. It's now about combining anything you're passionate about with technology. This includes health care, the environment, energy, mining, agriculture, the creative arts, as well as core tech jobs like cybersecurity, networking and data analysis.
This is why ITAC has worked with post-secondary institutions to create business technology management programs that blend training in business and tech. This is important because the battle for tech talent is now fought on a global scale, and Canada is in a unique position and is viewed as a leader. That's one of the reasons so many big-name tech investments are taking place across the country. Technology and its application in cutting-edge fields is no longer a domestic feel-good story, and Canada is a serious player in the digital world economy, a destination for investment and a world leader in artificial intelligence.
Over the past year, global talent has been strongly flowing into Canada, including from the U.S. That is something unforeseen not too long ago. Almost every city in Canada has tech incubators, and there are many examples of massive global tech firms investing significantly in tech jobs. Equally important, there is domestic technology growth going on here as well, owing to increased access to talent and venture capital, and public support for small business. This adds to a combination of competitive tax rates, business costs, and a strong economy, which form an environment that is ready for success.
A key reason for this success is that we have the right approach to copyright, a very balanced approach, and this should continue. The act is working. We need to be careful about recommending sizeable changes that may have unintended consequences to other industries. The tech industry believes that the 2012 review was a successful and important factor in the growth of the Canadian tech sector.
There's no escaping the reality that technology has changed our world forever, and the sheer amount of data that exists, and will grow, will require the use of machines to be able to sort that data. Computers far surpass humans' ability to quickly download and process data, but when they are used in conjunction with human thought and intuition, the way we work, learn, and grow, and the ways we navigate the world around us can be done so much more efficiently.
As I said at the outset, our role as a national industry association is to work closely with our members, so we reached out to them to ask about copyright concerns, and they all named artificial intelligence, or AI, and machine learning.
Canada needs to match its vision of being a leader in AI with a policy framework that supports AI development and commercialization. This requires policies that promote access to data, and broad access to data is fundamental to AI. AI research and products need large quantities of data so that software can be trained to interpret text, recognize patterns and make predictions. Broad access to data is also needed to mitigate the risk of bias in AI solutions.
The importance of access to data has been recognized in other countries, including the U.S. and Japan, where copyright laws explicitly allow for the reproduction of copyright-protected works to facilitate information analysis by computers.
If Canada does not amend the Copyright Act to provide a similar exemption to infringement, it's reasonable to predict that we'll fall behind these other countries with AI talent and investment capital migrating to more favourable jurisdictions. We need to be clear: Adding an exemption for information analysis does not undermine the interests of content owners. The right to read, understand and analyze information data has never been subject to control under copyright laws. Using a computer to learn more efficiently, when compared to manual reading, viewing or observing works, does not implicate the rights of owners. Owners will continue to control access to their works.
Today there's a global AI race as other countries are trying to catch up and surpass Canada in this industry. Just because Canada is seen as a global leader, we cannot rest on our laurels. For years we've said, “If only we can convert our reputation from being pure researchers into developing business.” Well, AI is one of these opportunities. We do not want a chilling effect on the growth of AI in Canada, especially right now, and poor policy choices will especially impact and harm small firms, which are the backbone of our economy. If we do not enable broad access to data, SMEs and start-up firms will be impacted the most. These enterprises and firms will have little or no data on their own, making access to published works and data critical to their research and commercialization efforts.
Broadly, this is what we propose: that the committee acknowledge that the Copyright Act does not implicate the copying of lawfully accessed works for AI purposes and the committee recommend that a new exception be added to the Copyright Act to clarify that copying, analyzing and using lawfully acquired works and data to develop new knowledge does not require authorization of the copyright owner. If we want Canada to maintain an industry leadership position in AI, we need to get this policy right.
ITAC has traditionally called on government to better engage the tech community in the development of policies and, frankly, we're pleased to say that government, including this committee, is doing more and more of this. Industry can provide insight and share knowledge and expertise, which is especially important with new technologies.
How can government support the growth of the technology industry? It does not need to be direct funding, although that can help. It can also be setting the policy framework that strikes the right balance. As Canada continues to grow the tech sector, access to data is one variable, along with financial capital, talent and commercial opportunities, that can help ensure that investments continue.
We believe that the global best practice can be applied to the copyright review. The act has a mandatory review every five years; however, technology will continue to outpace the speed of legislation. Thus, we're looking for changes to copyright, but we're looking for a surgical approach. The committee has been assigned a very tough job, and it will be very hard to try to please everyone. However, our overarching message is that the act needs a surgical update and, frankly, will need a scalpel going forward, not a hammer, given the rate of change.
In closing, I'd like to thank the committee for the extensive consultations they've done thus far.
Thank you for the opportunity to present our industry's perspective.