Science and Research Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2026

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you so much for the question.

The member's question is actually core to our national strategy, Madam Chair. That is why the Prime Minister asked me and the department to accelerate our national AI strategy by almost two years because of the importance of building a sovereign AI to make sure we not only have the data centres and the talent but have the ability to drive commercialization.

We have a great talent and research ecosystem here. This is going to be enhanced by our $1.7-billion talent attraction strategy, which will attract 1,000 new scientists and labs to Canada and is the most aggressive in the G7. We're very proud of that, but we have to make sure we can translate it into commercialization in order to keep the jobs and the intellectual property here.

If the member doesn't mind, for one minute, I'll discuss why that is so important, just so folks appreciate it. In the data and AI economy, having control of your intellectual property is really important, because we don't want to essentially pay rent to use other countries' material. If we build it here and keep it here, it means we're growing the jobs and the innovation here in Canada. That is really a core part of sovereignty.

One final part is making sure we have the skilled workforce to use these tools, and we're investing in that as well.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Perhaps my next question is this: Given recent changes, what is the government doing to ensure that top global talent can come here quickly and contribute to our research ecosystem?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Again, I appreciate the question very much.

The talent attraction stream is really important. It's built on a good foundation.

We have our three national institutes that we started. Again, some Canadians may not appreciate these, but we have, in Toronto, Vector, headed by Geoffrey Hinton, who won the Nobel Prize and is essentially the godfather of AI. He also won the Turing prize. In Montreal, we have Mila, headed by Yoshua Bengio. He won the Turing prize. It's the Nobel Prize of technology. In Edmonton, we have Amii, the machine learning institute. That's headed by another scientist, named Rich Sutton, who is a Turing prize winner. We have three institutes that are churning out the best and the brightest. They're working with universities such as Sherbrooke, the University of Toronto, Waterloo, the University of Victoria, and UBC.

We have great talent. We have to keep them here. The first way to do this is to attract more talent to come with this talent attraction stream. Not only the scientists, but the labs come. That means the students come, and that means the innovation comes here.

I will say that our CIFAR chairs and our research chairs are turning out incredible work in journals.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

The time is up for MP Rana.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We will now proceed to MP Blanchette-Joncas for six minutes.

Please go ahead.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I'd like to welcome the minister who is with us today. I really liked some parts of his speech, including one passage in particular. I hope it will be shared with his colleagues. The minister pointed out that sovereignty is not isolation.

Minister, you will understand that Quebec's sovereignty is not about isolation; it is about connecting with the community of nations around the world.

That said, let's get back to the subject at hand today: artificial intelligence.

Minister, you were here on December 3. I asked you some pretty straightforward questions in terms of your public consultation, and you said that 11,300 public submissions had been received. You said you were very proud of this high level of participation, which was the largest digital public consultation in the history of the industry. You said the process was completely transparent and that it would soon be published online.

Minister, when will the briefs submitted during this public consultation be available?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you for the question.

I have good news for MPs today.

As of today, the department has posted online not only all of the 28 task force reports but also the summaries of the 11,000 interventions and contributions, which we really appreciate, from the public. That is all online. I'm glad you asked about it. It's all available now.

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

Mr. Minister, the submissions are now online and anyone can look at them.

Is that correct?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Yes.

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

That's perfect.

How long have they been online, exactly?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I'm not sure of the exact time, but I think it went on very recently.

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

Can you ask your deputy minister? I don't think you know.

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Yes. It may have gone on today, this morning.

[Mark Schaan, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Industry]

The 28,000 submissions from the task force members were published today, this afternoon, and the summary of all the other submissions is available now, I think.

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

Do you think so or do you know?

[Mark Schaan]

I can look at my phone, but it's online now—

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

Listen, you're telling me—

[Mark Schaan]

Today.

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

You're telling me that this is the largest public consultation in history. It is historic, and you and the minister aren't even able to agree on the date. I am not referring to the expert panel; I mean the 11,300 submissions filed as part of the public consultations.

Can you give me a date?

[Mark Schaan]

Today.

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

Okay.

How long have the expert panel submissions been online?

[Mark Schaan]

Since today. They are now public.

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

The minister just said it was since January 28. Can you agree on your dates?

[Evan Solomon, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Sure. The expert testimony, as I understand it.... Everything went online today. It is public and should be accessible right now.