Science and Research Committee on Jan. 26th, 2026

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We will now proceed to MP Rana for five minutes.

Please go ahead.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much to all the witnesses for spending their valuable time with us today.

Dr. Murphy, AI is a top priority of our government, and our government is doing a lot in focusing on AI research. Do you think the current funding for AI research is meeting the demands of the AI researchers?

[Gail Murphy]

Absolutely. The AI research funding that exists has been a good starting point, but there are many researchers both in fundamental AI and those who are looking to apply AI, as well as those who are looking to understand how AI can be applied fairly and what rules need to be there who are eager to see more funding in the area to be able to make this transition from the techniques that are coming out into applications.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

How can we ensure the research being done in universities on AI is not only available for the industry, but also available for the public?

[Gail Murphy]

Researchers within the university sector are interested in health care, as Dr. Gupta was mentioning, which can not only be for commercial good, but more importantly for the public good within the country.

There is a lot of interest in bringing data assets together that come from different governmental levels, whether they're federal, provincial, municipal, to be able to look at really important questions from geographical regions, from understanding how we can bring data together. All of those require an ability to fund students. They require an ability to have infrastructure available to use and an ability to collaborate across the country, so that the questions are able to consider differences across geographical regions, to consider differences in diversity, and to be able to look at them from the whole view that we can get across the country.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

What barriers exist when trying to move AI research from universities into real-world applications?

[Gail Murphy]

There are challenges sometimes in first getting a breadth of data available to be able to answer a question of interest. For instance, sometimes with an economic question, you might want to have workers' compensation data together with health data. That's not always easy for researchers to bring together at this point.

There's a real need to be able to fund the talent we're developing from a student perspective and have them available to look into the questions, and then to also fund the projects that bring industry or governments together with the university personnel. That intersectionality of being able to bring the people together and have them work collaboratively on a project requires funding to be there to bring in people from different kinds of technical backgrounds, and ideally not only from the university sector but also people from colleges and other areas who have different technical backgrounds to be able to work on the problems together.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Dr. Gupta, what do you think we'll see in the next five to 10 years regarding the AI scope in Canada and the ecosystem?

[Arvind Gupta]

I'll say again that we're at the very early stages of this technology.

One thing I'm thinking about is that AI will not only impact industry; it'll impact our civil society writ large, it'll impact the way we provide social services and it'll also impact other science and research areas. I don't think we're paying enough attention, for example, to the impact of AI on inventing new materials and the potential for AI to impact our understanding of biological systems.

When we talk about funding, we're currently putting funding into developing new AI techniques. I think we should be thinking about how we can support the proliferation of AI across disciplines, because if we can more rapidly develop new materials, that will impact industry in a pretty profound way.

To think that my students are going to do the materials science research is probably a little naive. To make sure the materials science students have the AI tools to impact that field will have much more impact.

What I would encourage you to think about is proliferating AI research across the academic enterprise as a way to build an AI ecosystem writ large across the country. We want medical schools to understand AI techniques deeply so that they can train a new generation of doctors who feel comfortable with these systems, understand issues of privacy and safety, and feel comfortable then developing these new systems and adopting them more rapidly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Your time is up, MP Rana.

With that, we will proceed to MP Blanchette-Joncas for two and a half minutes.

Please go ahead.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Mr. Gupta, you were a member of the minister's AI strategy task force. What is your position on the fact that hundreds, if not thousands, of participants were able to intervene anonymously during this consultation? Are you concerned that some of that input might have been foreign interference attempting to influence the pan-Canadian AI strategy? The government allowed anonymous input, so foreign interference is possible.

[Arvind Gupta]

To be honest with you, we were not involved as task force members in collecting or collating individual responses, so I can only take responsibility for my own consultations and the written submissions that I received. Those were not read by anybody other than me and they were very carefully considered in my recommendations.

I would very much hope that the broader public intake was looked at carefully with that jaundiced eye and that these are genuine submissions by Canadian stakeholders and not by foreign actors, but I wasn't involved, unless Gail knows something else.

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

So, what is your opinion?

According to Matt Hatfield from OpenMedia, the government is being cavalier about this. It isn't really interested in what Canadians think about AI; it's more interested in business opportunities and innovation in the sector than it is about the risks this new technology poses to society.

As an expert, what are your thoughts on secret interference by anonymous groups that could potentially influence something as important as Canada's AI strategy?

[Arvind Gupta]

Again, I'm not aware of how that was handled. I will say that I personally receive many written submissions and many requests for people to speak with me directly. I conducted at least 30 in-person interviews. I'd hate to guess how many submissions I received, but there were maybe somewhere between 50 and 100. I can assure you that all those I read helped inform the recommendations in my report.

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

An international study conducted by KPMG earlier this year concluded that Canadian society is among the most distrustful and least informed with respect to AI. Are you concerned that this jeopardizes the country's leadership role? The minister is literally allowing people to come and—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. Time is up for you, MP Blanchette-Joncas.

Now we will—

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

Madam Chair, I would be pleased to request a written response from Mr. Gupta.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

If you can, Dr. Gupta, submit a response to this, that would be really great.

[Arvind Gupta]

Do you mind writing the question for me, just to make sure that I have it in writing?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Okay. The clerk will send it to you.

Thank you.

With that, now we will proceed to MP Mahal for three minutes, and then we will end the panel with MP Noormohamed for three minutes.

MP Mahal, please go ahead.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, I'll be splitting my time with MP Vis.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford, BC]

No. I'm good.

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

It will be Tony, then.

Thank you.

I will start with Dr. D'Agostino.

We heard that there is a big concern about the CLOUD Act being a U.S.-controlled act, and that allows U.S.-based companies—even though they have their offices here in Canada—to still control the data. They have access to those data.

You mentioned in your earlier questions that data can be very sensitive data, like indigenous data, their records or the private data of other citizens. How crucial is it that, as a sovereign nation, as a country, we should have parallel, if not better, legislation that would force those companies, if they want to come to Canada and invest in future Canadian AI...? Do you think we need to have a parallel legislation right away? How crucial is it?

[Pina D'Agostino]

In terms of the whole AI landscape, what we do need are rules of engagement and clear boundaries. I would say that sensitive data—and you were talking about indigenous data—would fall into a category that would be very high-risk data. For anything that can help clarify or identify the harms and that can ensure that something like the CLOUD Act would pertain to it, we would need to have clear exceptions and would have to ensure that the processes in place would not expose that sensitive data.

Right now, we haven't signed on to the CLOUD Act. We should look at stakeholder interests and have widespread knowledge and consultation as to what the harms are to ensure that those don't take place, if there were some type of legislation of that sort.