Mr. Chair. vice-chairs and members of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, I am very pleased to be here once again, this time to talk about Bill C‑27.
I am grateful to be able to share my time with my colleague Céline Castets-Renard, who is online and who is the university research chair in responsible AI in a global context. As one of the preeminent legal experts on artificial intelligence in Canada and in the world, she is very familiar with what is happening elsewhere, particularly in the EU and the U.S. She also leads a SSHRC-funded research project on AI governance in Canada, of which I am part. The project is directed squarely at the question you are grappling with today in considering this bill, which is how to create a system that is consistent with the broad strokes of what major peer jurisdictions, such as Europe, the U.K. and the U.S., are doing while nevertheless ensuring that we remain true to our values and to the foundations of our legal and institutional environment. In short, we have to create a bill that's going to work here, and our comments are directed at that; at least, my part is. Professor Castets-Renard will speak more specifically about the details of the bill as it relates to regulating artificial intelligence.
Our joint message to you is simple. We believe firmly that Bill C-27 is an important and positive step in the process of developing solid governance to encourage and promote responsible AI. Moreover, it is vital and urgent that Canada establish a legal framework to support responsible AI governance. Ethical guidelines have their place, but they are complementary to and not a substitute for hard rules and binding enforceable norms.
Thus, our goal is to provide you with constructive feedback and recommendations to help ready the bill for enactment. To that end, we have submitted a written brief, in English and in French, that highlights the areas that we think would benefit from clarification or greater precision prior to enactment.
This does not mean that further improvements are not desirable. Indeed, we would say they are. It's only that we understand that time is of the essence, and we have to focus on what is achievable now, because delay is just not an option.
In this opening statement, we will draw your attention to a subset of what we discuss in the brief. I will briefly touch on four items before I turn it over to my colleague, Professor Castets-Renard.
First, it is important to identify who is responsible for what aspects of the development, deployment and putting on the market of AI systems. This matters for determining liability, especially of organizations and business entities. Done right, it can help enforcers gather evidence and assess facts. Done poorly, it may create structural immunity from accountability by making it impossible to find the evidence needed to prove violations of the law.
I would also add that the current conception of accountability is based on state action only, and I wonder whether we should also consider private rights of action. Those are being explored in other areas, including, I might add, in Bill C-59, which has amendments to the Competition Act.
Second, we need to use care in crafting the obligations and duties of those involved in the AI value chain. Regulations should be drafted with a view to what indicators can be used to measure and assess compliance. Especially in the context of regulatory liability and administrative sanctions, courts will look to what regulators demand of industry players as the baseline for deciding what qualifies as due diligence and what can be expected of a reasonably prudent person in the circumstances.
While proof of regulatory compliance usually falls on the business that invokes it, it is important that investigators and prosecutors be able to scrutinize claims. This requires metrics and indicators that are independently verifiable and that are based on robust research. In the context of AI, its opacity and the difficulty for outsiders to understand the capability and risks of AI systems makes it even more important that we establish norms.
Third, reporting obligations should be mandatory and not ad hoc. At present, the act contemplates the power of the AI and data commissioner to demand information. Ad hoc requests to examine compliance are insufficient. Rather, the default should be regular reporting at regular intervals, with standard information requirements. The provision of information allows regulators to gain an understanding of what is happening at the research level and at the deployment and marketing level at a pace that is incremental, even if one can say that the development of AI is exponential.
This builds institutional knowledge and capacity by enabling regulators and enforcers to distinguish between situations that require enforcement and those that do not. That seems to be the crux of the matter. Everyone wants to know when it's right to intervene and when we should let things evolve. It also allows for organic development of new regulations as new trends and developments occur.
I would be happy to talk about some examples. We don't have to reinvent the wheel here.
Finally, the enforcement and implementation of the AI act as well as the continual development of new regulations must be supported by an independent, robust institutional structure with sufficient resources.
The proposed AI data commissioner cannot accomplish this on their own. While not a perfect analogy—and I know some people here know that I'm the competition expert—I believe that the creation of an agency not unlike the Competition Bureau would be a model to consider. It's not perfect. The bureau is a good example because it combines enforcement of all types—criminal, regulatory, administrative and civil—with education, public outreach, policy development and now digital intelligence. It has a highly specialized workforce trained in the relevant disciplines it needs to draw on to discharge its mandate. It also represents Canada’s interests in multilateral fora and collaborates actively with peer jurisdictions. It matters, I think, to have that for AI.
I am now going to turn it over for the remaining time to my colleague Professor Castets-Renard.
Thank you.