Science and Research Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

You're getting into debate.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

No, Madam Chair. I just want to tell my colleague that we asked Minister Solomon to appear for two hours. He's now here for one hour.

My colleague is saying the opposite. I just want to state the facts.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Okay.

We will go to MP Baldinelli.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Going back to the notion of having a foundation of trust, it's very hard to establish trust, Minister, when this government committed $400 million to Algoma with no job guarantees, for example. Some $220 million was paid out to Stellantis, and they've indicated that they're not proceeding. You've committed $250 million through the sovereign fund to Cohere, and there are no guardrails through the MOU to ensure that $250 million of Canadian taxpayer money is going to support Canadian businesses.

Can you see why Canadians might have some concerns in regard to this notion of having a foundation of trust?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I'm delighted to talk about Cohere. We have invested in Cohere—one of the four large language models. They employ 450 Canadians.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Its first step was to hire an American company when Canadian companies exist. How are we supposed to create a Canadian ecosystem when Cohere hires an American company that has ties to numerous American companies? Oh, by the way, one of them has ties to Brookfield.

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Let me just say that any definition of sovereignty.... They're headquartered in Canada, their IP is in Canada—

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

That's a foundation of trust, Minister.

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

—and they're trading in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I request that the member please allow the minister to answer.

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

It's a great question. The member asked me about sovereignty. They were founded in Canada. They employ in Canada. Their IP resides in Canada. They're trading around the world. This is a Canadian company that we're happy to champion.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

CoreWeave is not.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Go one at a time, or it will become very difficult for the interpreters to interpret. I would request that members please allow the minister to respond to the questions they are asking.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

In your capacity as Minister of AI, would you have had the opportunity to discuss with the Prime Minister his ethics screens with regard to some of his holdings? Would you find it interesting to find that some of the names I've mentioned this afternoon are actually held by the Prime Minister?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

My discussions are almost always about building an ecosystem to create jobs here in Canada, and all—

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Minister, this is about establishing a foundation of trust. The perception of conflict is a huge concern. The Privy Council clerk, Mr. Sabia, who's from St. Catharines—a great Niagara boy—divested himself of Brookfield holdings because of the perception.

Minister, 10 years ago you lost your job—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

The time is up.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

—at CBC because of the perception of a conflict. You should be well aware of this issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, MP Baldinelli. The time is up.

We will now proceed to MP Hogan for three and a half minutes.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you, Chair, and thanks to the entire committee for allowing me to be here today.

Thank you, Minister.

Minister, I want to focus a bit on the regional development of AI. Of course, I'm from Alberta, one of the strongholds of artificial intelligence development in this country.

During a recent visit to AMII, you highlighted Canada's AI leadership, and you announced new funding for AI literacy and compute access. The budget also commits $1 billion to AI compute and infrastructure investments, including $20 million for AMII, in my home province of Alberta, to expand compute capacity for researchers. This is great. This infrastructure will help businesses seize opportunities from AI. It will create jobs, and it will create economic growth, but we need more of it.

How do regional hubs like AMII fit into the government's strategy to ensure access to sovereign compute resources? What role are regional hubs going to play in scaling AI adoption nationally?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thanks for the question. It's a great opportunity to highlight what AMII does.

In some ways, I wish these were brand names. You're from Alberta, so you'll know what the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute is all about. It is incredible. It was founded by Rich Sutton, who's a Turing Award winner. When you go to this institute, you see that it is absolutely remarkable. It plays a central role in our strategy.

It is a hub for so much, and not only to make sure that companies in Alberta.... There are remarkable AI companies creating jobs and solving remarkable issues in health care, in agriculture and in energy, and they need compute capacity. Making compute accessible is part of that. Energy companies, for example, in Alberta are working with AMII researchers to reduce emissions and to improve efficiency in oil and gas and clean hydrogen production. We're investing in local ecosystems.

I'll go back to a remarkable visit I had recently at AMII and go back to the company RL Core Technologies. We talk a lot about clean water, not only in some regions of Canada but also around the world. There is a classic company...an AMII researcher using the investments we made and using that regional hub to develop a company and raise money not only to teach the next generation of great minds but also to build a company and employ people, and then export that company around the world. It is absolutely central to our strategy, and that's why we're continuing to invest in those hubs.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you, Minister. You're right. There are a lot of great AI successes in Alberta.

There's a Calgary-based company, Hifi, I want to highlight. It uses fibre optics and AI for pipeline monitoring. It can detect changes in temperature, flow and vibrations, which in turn makes pipelines safer to operate and makes sure people aren't digging where they're not supposed to be digging. It can tell if there are problems developing. It's a growing area of knowledge and expertise for our country. It's already creating massive economic developments.

I want to push on capturing economic and social benefits from these AI investments. The applications of AI are broad, and as I mentioned, they impact a lot of industries, including not only energy but also health, climate and defence. How will Canada's next AI strategy balance these priorities to make sure that investments maximize both economic growth and social benefits for Canada?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

We have everything from the AI-driven diagnostic tools at Toronto's University Health Network to the defence industrial strategy. It will allow us to have dual-use technologies. If I had time, I'd give a long list of great Canadian companies with innovators and pioneers using this technology to employ people and to drive innovation in the country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

We will end this panel with one minute for MP Blanchette-Joncas.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Minister, can you commit today to ensuring that any future legislation on artificial intelligence will include specific protections for copyright and for creation in French in Quebec?