Science and Research Committee on Feb. 12th, 2026

[Prof. Mehmet Murat Kristal]

In terms of research, we don't really foresee that many barriers. We have resources. For example, at York University, we got federal funding to create something called “Connected Minds”. That was an initiative between York University and Queen's University that brought together AI researchers, engineers and also social sciences, because there is a need to understand the impact of AI in the society at large. We are doing our best.

In terms of training, though, we need to train more people. When I was creating the master of management in artificial intelligence, the LLMs were in their initial stage. They weren't as prevalent. We launched the program in 2019. Now everybody has a ChatGPT app on their phone. The game has changed considerably.

What we are trying to do is teach the foundational AI knowledge and then, on top of it, there is also why we're implementing these technologies in any kind of organization. That understanding seems to be lacking among our students. We want to make the connection, so to speak, to how we can utilize these technologies to be more competitive on the world stage.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you.

How are recent graduates connecting with their future employers? What's missing within this pipeline? What would keep graduates and researchers in Canada?

[Prof. Mehmet Murat Kristal]

That's a very good question.

As in my opening statement, the employers—and I'm not talking about hyperscales; I'm talking about regular organizations and regular companies—are still having trouble understanding what AI can do for them. As a result, when you have this many organizations that don't understand what AI can do for them, it's harder for them to get in touch with students or hire students as interns so they can do projects in their organizations about AI, who then later on turn into full-time employees in those organizations.

The real barrier that I see is in how we educate and train our executives so they can also understand what AI can do for their organizations. Once they get to that point, they are going to be drawn into the educational institutions and universities because that's where we actually train people who can do these things. The impediment is how aware our decision-makers are of AI capabilities.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

In your research on supply chains, what AI use cases are proving most valuable for Canadian firms? What steps does the government need to take to scale these successes?

[Prof. Mehmet Murat Kristal]

The biggest thing, especially in Canada, is about demand forecasting and logistics. That also ties into the last-mile logistics and reverse logistics. If you take out LLMs...because AI is not only a large language model. There are other applications of AI. They perform well in closed systems, but for those closed systems to work, you need to know what the outcome is.

Forecasting is one of the trickiest parts where we would like to see improvements. That is going to impact your greenhouse gas emissions, your logistics, your pricing and your inventories. I think that is where the biggest growth can take place.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

For my last question, in terms of artificial intelligence, where does Canada shine?

[Prof. Mehmet Murat Kristal]

In terms of research, we do shine. I mean, I don't need to tell you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting. The time is up for MP Rana.

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.

Mr. Lewis, must any AI system used by the state be technically reversible and capable of being disabled without depending on an external supplier?

[Dr. Peter Lewis]

That's a good question.

I think that's a matter of policy and something that we ought to consult broadly on to understand. From the point of view of national security, we obviously need to have sufficient checks, balances and security valves, if you like, to be able to assert control. This is important.

At the same time, we need to acknowledge that we live in a global information ecosystem. The Internet itself is something that we could argue is already essentially out of control in terms of how to control it, but we still live with that. What do we do in this situation? We put our best efforts in place to be able to protect vulnerable people and curate and protect the integrity of the information ecosystem. I would argue that we need a similar approach to AI.

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

Thank you.

My next question is for Dr. Kristal.

In your opinion, is it generally more costly for a country to correct a technological dependency after it has been installed or to invest from the outset in robust institutional architecture?

[Prof. Mehmet Murat Kristal]

Could you please repeat the question?

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

When it comes to regulating artificial intelligence, is it more costly for a country to correct a technological dependency after it has been put in place or to invest before putting it in place to ensure that it has robust institutional architecture?

[Prof. Mehmet Murat Kristal]

That's a very good question. Thank you very much for asking it. I was actually just reading an article about that.

There is a difference between AI-first and AI-native. With AI-first, you're implementing technologies and then using whatever comes up first, but you're not changing your organizational structure to be AI-ready. On the other hand, there is this notion of AI-native. I would like to see our country be AI-native so that how we design our organizations and processes enables AI implementation.

There is a difference between using the tools versus changing the way you look into how you operate organizations, and I would like us to become AI-native.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

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

Madam Chair, I'd like a written response from the witness. I'd like to know if he can answer my questions about the cost. Would it be better to invest before or after? Is there a cost to that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

If you would like to respond, please send it in writing. Thank you.

We will end this panel with two minutes with MP Holman and then two minutes with MP McKelvie.

MP Holman, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

[Kurt Holman, Conservative, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses for attending the committee today. This question is for Professor Kristal.

Canada continues to provide world-class AI researchers, yet many leave for opportunities in other countries where compensation and compute access are significantly higher. How is the Canadian higher education system trying to prevent this talent loss?

[Prof. Mehmet Murat Kristal]

It's not an easy question to answer. Yes, you are competing against other institutions, and they provide more infrastructure and more opportunities and pay their researchers more. That's why I said I would like to see more investment in research. That's the reality.

You're competing for talent, and there is not much of this talent. There is a limited amount of talent. You attract this talent by providing people with doctoral students, post-doc students and labs, and you need to pay them. All of these things are not easy to overcome. Our institutional structure is not the same as other countries', especially the United States'.

[Kurt Holman, Conservative, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you for the answer.

My second question—hopefully I can get this in during my time—is for Dr. Lewis, regarding the concerns about AI, privacy and civil liberties.

I support the development and use of AI in Canada. It's critical for innovation, but I have heard how many constituents in London—Fanshawe are concerned about Bill C-8 and its broad surveillance powers. As the government deploys AI systems using sensitive data, what concrete safeguards is the industry utilizing to ensure that AI is used responsibly, with full protection for privacy and civil liberties?

[Dr. Peter Lewis]

That's a great question. There are a number of technical safeguards that we can put in place, and research on this is ongoing.

It is an ongoing, emergent threat as well. I want to be clear about that. This is not a well-defined problem, where we can sit down, develop solutions and then implement them. This is very much an emerging thing that we have to respond to. We need to be able to support both implementers and researchers in order to be able to understand how to respond to these in real time as these threats to privacy emerge.

We also ought to be very careful in the responses to constituents like yours about what they can realistically expect at the moment, what is being done to support them and maybe where some of those gaps are.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you. The time is up for MP Holman.

We will now end this panel with MP McKelvie for two minutes. Please go ahead.

[Jennifer McKelvie, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It's clear that we have work to do to ensure the safe, regulated implementation of AI.

Dr. Lewis, I would like to take a moment to have you outline some of the benefits you think will come from AI and some of the good it can generate for Canada.

[Dr. Peter Lewis]

Thank you so much.

I think we've heard examples in passing, through the discussion, of some of the areas where AI is having some of the greatest impacts. Health care is an obvious one. There is personalized medicine, for example. Advanced screening of conditions is much faster and that means people can end up in treatment cycles or receiving appropriate care quicker. Also, medical professionals can focus on the use of their expertise and be more patient-centred, supported by technology that takes away some of the work that they would normally have to do at the same time as that. I think there are all sorts of benefits in places like health care.

One of the panellists earlier on brought up the importance of SMEs. I think this is an area that is absolutely ripe for us to take advantage. SMEs make up the majority of the economy, but they're also not the best-placed organizations to be able to rapidly adopt AI and to understand how to do that well. I think there are all sorts of opportunities in different areas—supply chain, manufacturing, energy. I did a project with a window cleaning firm, and they were achieving increased efficiencies for their business and were able to grow in ways that they hadn't been able to because of the opportunities that AI gave them.

What's needed is the ability to support these organizations to do this well, given the size and scale of what they're able to do and their access to expertise. We've talked a lot about the access to the expertise that we have here in Canada. We really need to make sure that expertise is available to the economy at large and not just to a few very large firms that are attractive as employers.

I think, yes, there are lots of areas. I could keep talking about education, international students—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I am sorry for interrupting, Dr. Lewis. Our time is up.

With that, this panel comes to an end. I really want to thank all our witnesses for appearing before the committee and for their important input into this important study.

With that, we will suspend the meeting for a few minutes so that our panellists can leave and the next set of witnesses can come in.

The meeting is suspended.