Science and Research Committee on Feb. 5th, 2026

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

Deputy Minister, do you think it would be relevant, for public trust and transparency, for the government to disclose all the names of the people who participated in the public consultation?

[Mark Schaan]

I think many important aspects need to be taken into account to reassure Canadians about transparency and to give them confidence in the consultation process on a national strategy. One of the things we can do is really have an open data portal, as is the case for the national artificial intelligence strategy.

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

Deputy Minister, I think you're trying to avoid the question. I understand that.

Have you ever met with Brookfield on the development of Canada's artificial intelligence strategy?

[Mark Schaan]

I have not had any consultations with Brookfield on Canada's national strategy.

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

Has the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation had any meetings with Brookfield on the development of Canada's artificial intelligence strategy?

[Mark Schaan]

I know there was a question from Parliament about meetings with Brookfield. In their response, the government and the department provided Parliament with all of the meetings with Brookfield, including the meetings that the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and I attended. That is public. The department's response includes all the meetings with Brookfield.

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

Can you tell us if you've had any meetings with Brookfield on the development of Canada's artificial intelligence strategy?

[Mark Schaan]

As I said, the department provided a list of all the meetings that took place, and that list does not include the topic of the national artificial intelligence strategy. There have been meetings with Brookfield on other topics, but not on the national AI strategy.

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

You're confirming that you've had meetings with Brookfield.

[Mark Schaan]

I had one meeting with Brookfield, and it's in the document the department provided to Parliament. That document lists all the meetings between Brookfield and the Government of Canada, including meetings with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

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

Can you confirm whether Brookfield proactively participated in the public consultation on artificial intelligence?

[Mark Schaan]

As I said in answering one of your earlier questions, I will send a written response to the committee regarding the national consultation and Brookfield's role.

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

Were there any discussions with Brookfield at your meetings about the development of Canada's artificial intelligence strategy?

[Mark Schaan]

As I said, the list of meetings between Brookfield and the Government of Canada and all of the topics that were discussed was provided in the response to the question from Parliament, and the national AI strategy was not one of them.

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

Can you tell us what topics you discussed with Brookfield?

[Mark Schaan]

Madam Chair, the documents the department provided in response to Parliament's request include the topics that were discussed at the meetings between Brookfield and the Government of Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you. The time is up.

We will now proceed to MP Mahal for five minutes.

Please go ahead.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for coming up for this questioning.

I want to continue with the Brookfield question that was asked of the panel.

You said that you do not have knowledge that Brookfield participated in the national public consultation and that you will find out about it. From my perspective as an MP and from those of other colleagues, don't you think it's a betrayal to Canadians that their MPs were not told if Brookfield was part of the national public consultations, given that the current Prime Minister was CEO of Brookfield and is now somehow still part of it?

[Mark Schaan]

As noted in previous interactions with the committee, the national process for consultation on a new national AI strategy received more than 11,000 responses from Canadians. The anonymized summary responses have been posted on the open data portal. It's clear from those responses that Canadians will have transparency on the types of considerations that were raised.

In a parallel exercise, an Order Paper question—

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

My question, Mr. Schaan—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Let's have one person at a time, please.

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

—was in regard to Brookfield.

Do you think it was a betrayal on the part of the federal government that it did not disclose to MPs who are representing Canadians at large that Brookfield took part in the consultation? Please give a simple yes or no.

[Mark Schaan]

As I noted, I cannot confirm or deny that Brookfield participated in the 11,300 submissions that were received by the Government of Canada, a summary of which is posted online.

However, there was an Order Paper question related to interactions between the Government of Canada and Brookfield, to which the department has furnished a full reply, including all interactions between the company and the government.

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

Is it fair to say that you do not have an answer?

[Mark Schaan]

As I committed to, I am happy to go back to understand the degree to which we can answer the question, but to my knowledge, I am unaware of whether Brookfield participated in the national consultation on the artificial intelligence strategy.