Science and Research Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2025

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, thank you for being here today.

As you know, artificial intelligence is thoroughly transforming social relations, research activities, the economy and the delivery of public services, including in sectors essential to the vitality of francophone communities across the country.

What measures will our national strategy put in place to prevent linguistic bias, including those related to data and knowledge in the design, the implementation and the optimization of AI models? How will we ensure that we meet our obligations under the Official Languages Act, particularly to ensure the substantive equality of our two languages?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you for your question. It's very important to our government and to me.

The adoption of artificial intelligence in Canada has to reflect our foundational principles of linguistic duality and bilingualism, ensuring that any type of tech progress we have—and this is why we say AI for all—reinforces the equal status of French and English.

That's why we're embedding bilingualism and culturally representative data as core governance rules. That's really important. We're ensuring that Canadian AI systems are trained.... I don't want to get too technical, but the datasets they train on have to be in both languages.

By the way, we're working on programs for indigenous languages also, because it's very important to have large datasets of indigenous languages. I've spoken to the Premier of Manitoba about this, as we look for ways to make sure that it's not just in French and English.

It's very important. Indigenous languages are involved as well.

It is very important that we have large datasets there. There's work to be done there for sure, but we have to understand our regional realities, and we have to reflect our cultural context so we have fair, trustworthy outcomes.

Let me just say that because of the Official Languages Act, government technology is always deployed and guaranteed to have full equality and to adhere very strictly to the Official Languages Act to make sure it's inclusive. Let me give you one example from la belle province. In Quebec, the Information and Communications Technology Council—the ICTC—and Mila have entered into a learning partnership to help Canadian students and workers build technical, ethical and governance skills to thrive in the AI economy, making sure that we have equity and absolutely the two official languages.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

This is an important issue for me as an Acadian MP, for my colleagues from Quebec and for my francophone colleagues across the country.

I'm going to switch gears. In Canada, we have world-class expertise in artificial intelligence. We have some very talented researchers.

How do our recent investments in artificial intelligence support the development of the AI research sector in Canada? How will those investments help address the obstacles that our Canadian researchers currently face?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

That's also a very important question, because we have to build our research infrastructure.

We are building on that. In this budget, as the honourable member would know, we have $925 million over five years to build large-scale sovereign AI infrastructure on top of what we've been doing to make sure we have public and private research and innovation. We're really investing in that.

We're also establishing a sovereign public compute facility to work to make sure not only that our universities and our researchers in applied AI research have the compute power, but that we're attracting talent that wants this. One thing that is very important in that community is that researchers go to places that have access to compute, and that's one of the magnets Canada has.

They want to go to places that have top talent and leadership, like our institutes and, by the way, like the University of Waterloo; the Université de Sherbrooke, a university at the very front of the forum; McGill; U of T; the University of British Columbia; and the University of Alberta—many across this country. We make sure we're supporting that.

I will just remind you that in this last week, we invested another $42 million in what's called SciNet, which is the online forum where researchers across the country can work together—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Minister. Can you please wind up?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Yes.

That gives them the compute power that researchers across the country can use.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We will now proceed to MP Baldinelli and MP Hogan for three and a half minutes, and then we will end the panel with one and a half minutes for MP Blanchette-Joncas.

Go ahead, MP Baldinelli.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister.

During your remarks, you talked about the need to want to operate and how Canadians expect “a foundation of trust”. You were invited to appear before the ethics committee. A motion to appear was passed in September. You've had all fall and plenty of opportunities to go, but you keep avoiding it. In fact, I would suggest that you're dodging it.

Will you commit to appearing before the ethics committee before the Christmas break?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I am always happy to talk about AI and our sovereign strategy. If we can find the time to do that in this incredible.... This is why I'm delighted to be here today. I'm always delighted to share and take questions about it.

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

Well, Minister, the committee requested a two-hour appearance from you today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting—

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

Unfortunately, you're only here for an hour. The ethics committee is meeting right now. If you're going to finish here in an hour, I would suggest that they make time for you to appear if you'd like to take that extra hour there.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

I have a point of order, Chair.

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

In fact, you were supposed to appear here—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. There's a point of order.

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

—but denied that opportunity after a motion was passed by this committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We have a point of order.

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

The minister is not appearing for the full motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

There's a point of order. Stop the clock.

Go ahead, MP Hogan.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Chair, if we're going to cite the motion again, I will say there is nothing about these matters within the motion. It talks about “Recent advances in fundamental and applied research in the field”, “The needs and challenges of research centres, universities, and public institutes”, “The role of the federal government in promoting a responsible [AI] research ecosystem” and “The mechanisms for ensuring the diffusion, valorization, and protection of Canadian scientific discoveries”.

This question from the MP is entirely out of order.

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

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I request that members please keep the questions on the subject we have today.

Go ahead, MP Mahal.

[Jagsharan Singh Mahal, Conservative, Edmonton Southeast, AB]

I just wanted to reply, Madam Chair, to the point of order. The scope of the questioning of the minister is fairly wide.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We are getting into debate.

MP Blanchette-Joncas, do you have a point of order?

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

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

This is my colleague Mr. Hogan's first time in committee. I have been a member since January 2021. This is his first time here, so I'd like to welcome him.

I'd just like to point out to him that I moved a motion on Monday, November 24—