First of all, thank you for the question. I really appreciate that.
When we say “AI for all”, AI is going to benefit all provinces, and I hope Canadians listening to this appreciate that it is. Even though I'm the minister for economic development for southern Ontario, in my capacity as Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation we are making sure this benefits all Canadians across this country from coast to coast to coast, whether rural or urban.
Part of the goal of our national AI strategy is to make sure we are building the infrastructure and supporting small and medium-sized businesses through things like our AI compute strategy and our $300-million AI compute access fund to make sure that small and medium-sized businesses have access to the compute power they need to grow their businesses.
We were very pleased, by the way, to know that when we opened up that fund in the summer, over 1,000 applicants applied. In other words, the demand for that kind of support in our innovation economy is very strong.
I should say one last thing: At the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario—I know this is where the member's riding is really important—we have a special fund for artificial intelligence as well. In the last decade, we've invested more than $420 million in projects that have had a component of AI adoption. Remember that many of those investments are zero-interest loans to the companies that repay them. By the way, this is in every riding—Conservative ridings, Liberal ridings—where innovation is happening, and we're very proud of that.
In Ontario alone, there are 400,000 workers in the innovation sector. Across this country, the fastest-growing job sector is the digital sector. Over 800,000 people work in that sector, and about 150,000 people are already in the AI sector alone. Investing in this has already been hugely impactful and has created good jobs for Canadians.