Science and Research Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2025

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Gerald Butts is very involved in Liberal circles. You just said that you have had conversations with him. What kind of conversations would you have had with him?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

One of the interests I share with many people at Eurasia Group, I would say, and with many people here, is geopolitics. I discuss geopolitics and what's happening around the world with many people. This is not anything I do on a regular basis, but like many honourable members here, I have a fascination with geopolitics and the world-class work that many organizations do. I read newspapers. I read—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

What safeguards do you have in place, or do you even have any safeguards, to make sure that the AI policy you propose does not interact with your former employer, with whom you seem to have had conversations or interactions since you left the firm?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I follow all the highest standards that the Ethics Commissioner or anyone else has asked from me. I follow all those standards. I follow the rules exactly as I'm told to do and exactly as I would expect any member to do.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

How about the Prime Minister's interest in Brookfield? Do you have any safeguards you consider to make sure it doesn't enrich the Prime Minister?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Again, I follow all rules.

My focus here, I will say, is twofold. My focus is on sovereign AI and AI for all, and on the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. Those are really what I am focusing on.

I expect and assume that everybody follows the highest ethical standards.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you. Your time is up.

We will now proceed to MP McKelvie for five minutes.

Please go ahead.

[Jennifer McKelvie, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for joining us today.

Since you mentioned you like geopolitics and what's happening in the world, can you let us know how you're making sure that Canada's AI research ecosystem stays competitive internationally?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thanks for the question. I appreciate the honourable member's work, always.

We all know that AI is a transformative technology and that Canada has a long-term strategy as the first country to have a national strategy designed to keep our country competitive.

There are couple of things. The pan-Canadian AI strategy, which was introduced back in 2017, has invested billions of dollars in Canada's ecosystem. There are some key elements, like our CIFAR AI chairs and our national AI institutes. I keep mentioning them because they matter. They're world-leading. We have AMII in Edmonton, Mila in Montreal and Vector in Toronto. We have many centres. Waterloo is a centre. Sherbrooke is a centre. In Vancouver, there's.... We have an incredible cluster of remarkable innovation.

Because this is science and research, I just want to focus on our CIFAR AI chairs program. We have appointed over 125 researchers. They train about 250 graduate students and post-doc fellows every year. That gives us a pipeline of innovation. They go on not only to do more research, but to found companies that are transformative and create good jobs here.

Let me just give you a stat, because I think facts matter. Our CIFAR AI chairs rank third in global impact. We trail only Google and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. That means we produce papers that are four and a half times more likely than the global average to appear in the top 1% of cited journals. Just so Canadians know this, that puts us ahead of Meta, MIT, Oxford, Stanford and China.

These are significant leadership moments that Canadians should be proud of. Maybe we should tell our story more. What we've done is remarkable.

Our sovereign AI compute strategy, which we announced in budget 2024, includes $2 billion and $925 million over five years in this budget to ensure that our businesses, researchers and innovators have access to large-scale, secure compute.

Let me just say one other thing we've done. Sometimes Canadians aren't aware of how rich our ecosystem is. We have something called the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. The alliance has invested close to $300 million alone in trying to increase Canada's research compute capacity by 50%. In the new year, Canada will be building an AI supercomputer for our researchers, which will put us at the top of the G7. This is an incredible program. We're working on it right now. Canadians should be very proud that our program to build the kind of supercomputer that researchers need to solve the problems of tomorrow right now and right here in Canada is happening.

Again, we have quite a remarkable ecosystem we've invested in to make sure that this ecosystem not only stays competitive internationally but is a leader internationally.

[Jennifer McKelvie, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

Certainly, I think we're punching above our weight. I love that you brought statistics to show that.

On the pan-Canadian strategy, what are the key deliverables, key milestones or key successes that you think justify added investment in this area going forward?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

The pan-Canadian AI strategy has been absolutely successful. The reason we are renewing it is that the technology is moving so quickly and we want to make sure we're not only fostering innovation, but promoting economic growth. We want good jobs and high-tech jobs to stay here in Canada. We also want the intellectual property—the innovation—to stay here.

What are some key successes?

The three national AI institutes are globally renowned. I've travelled the world. I was in the U.A.E. In that region, they know Mila. They know who Yoshua Bengio is because of his pioneering work. They know Geoffrey Hinton at Vector, and they know all the researchers there. They know Rich Sutton, the pioneer of machine learning, and AMII.

These institutes are brand names in AI circles, and people should be very happy. That helps us recruit top talent around the world. Again, the AI institutes—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Please wind up, because you have 10 seconds.

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I'll end on a fact, because you like statistics. Since 2021, the national AI institutes have supported 1,800 companies in the private sector, which have employed great Canadians, given good jobs and contributed to our economy.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

We will now proceed to MP Blanchette-Joncas for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, since you say that trust is essential, let's get to the heart of the matter.

How can Canadians and Quebeckers trust the pan-Canadian artificial intelligence strategy when 80% of the country's data is hosted in the United States, which means they're accessible through the CLOUD Act? How can you guarantee our digital sovereignty if Canadian AI still relies on American infrastructure?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you for your question.

We know that sovereignty is not solitude and that a lot of data will be stored in clouds such as AWS in other countries. That is happening for innovation. That is exactly why we have a strategy to invest in Canadian infrastructure from data centres, from research and from companies: to make sure we're moving towards a sovereign AI. That's exactly right.

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

I know your strategy. In any case, I'm looking at it, and I see that you don't have a plan.

Let's move on to another substantive issue.

According to our analyses, data centres could account for up to 14% of the country's electricity demand by 2030. Quebec already has the cleanest and most stable electricity in the country. Why doesn't your strategy explicitly recognize that Quebec has to be the energy cornerstone of our digital infrastructure?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I'm very happy to talk about the strategy. We have not yet launched the renewed strategy. That is coming. This is why I'm looking forward to presenting it to you when we launch it in the new year.

I don't want to answer a hypothetical, but you're right: Quebec has fantastic clean energy infrastructure. We're working with the Government of Quebec to make sure of two things. One is that they have the digital infrastructure to thrive in this economy. I will say that this is why Mila is located there. Scale AI, our cluster, is also located there to build that ecosystem.

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

Do you agree that Quebec should be the cornerstone of your artificial intelligence strategy, which requires a great deal of energy?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Quebec is a very important part of the ecosystem. Quebec energy is very important to the idea of the clean energy grid we want to build as a government, and Quebec will continue to be very vital to building the economy of the future because of its clean energy.

By the way, because they have great investments, La Caisse and other great—

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

We also have the expertise.

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

—organizations are continuing. They have lots of expertise.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you. The time is up.

We will now proceed to MP DeRidder for five minutes.

Please go ahead.

[Kelly DeRidder, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Thank you for coming today, Minister.

You spoke proudly today about how, in 2017, you launched a national AI strategy. We've had witnesses at this committee testify that nothing has been implemented from that launch. In fact, you've said yourself that we're doing a refreshed AI strategy now, but it will be nine years later by the time you guys actually table it. We've already spent billions of dollars. Meanwhile, we remain in second-last place in the G7—sixth out of seven in the G7—for our innovation. We don't need a new mission statement, Minister; we need a strategy.

What's your strategy to commercialize and monetize Canadian innovation in Canada so it stays in Canada and so that the new $2-billion investment in this budget is a positive net return to the Canadian taxpayer?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

We have made tremendous progress. We are fifth in the world right now in terms of AI publications, according to Stanford's AI index.