Carney names new council to advise Ottawa on AI

Prime Minister Mark Carney has assembled a new group of researchers, executives, investors, and public-sector leaders to advise Ottawa on how Canada develops and uses AI.

Announced Oct. 2, the Prime Minister’s National Council on Artificial Intelligence will advise on the government’s AI for All strategy, announced in June. Its mandate includes accelerating adoption, supporting Canadian AI companies, building sovereign infrastructure, improving AI safety, and protecting the country’s democracy.

Its members cover a wide swath of academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, public servants, and international experts, including:

Ajay Agrawal, economist and professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management
Yoshua Bengio, professor at Université de Montréal, co-president and scientific director of LawZero and founder and scientific advisor of Mila
Sanja Fidler, CEO of Veeda AI
John Graham, president and CEO of CPP Investments
Gillian Hadfield, professor at Johns Hopkins University and faculty member at the Vector Institute
Jordan Jacobs, managing partner and co-founder of Radical Ventures
Eric Lamarre, senior advisor at McKinsey & Company
Valérie Pisano, president and CEO of Mila
Sen. Thomas Pitfield, founder and former CEO of Canadian tech firm Data Sciences
Jody Thomas, former national security and intelligence advisor to the prime minister
Louis Vachon, chair of BCE and Bell Canada and former CEO of National Bank of Canada
Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder and president of Cloudflare
Patrick Pichette (ex officio), CEO of Digital Transformation Canada

The government says the council will provide independent, practical and timely expert advice. A small team inside the Privy Council Office will support it, and responsible ministers and departments remain accountable for policy decisions and implementation.

“Prosperity and sovereignty in the age of AI belong to nations that can build, adopt, and govern AI on their own terms,” Carney said in a statement. “The new National Council on Artificial Intelligence will inform and advise the government on how to most effectively deploy AI in Canada — how to manage the risks, seize the opportunities, and ensure AI is used to improve the lives of all Canadians.”

The council’s brief reaches into economic competitiveness, AI adoption, government transformation, talent, research and sovereign infrastructure, all areas that could shape how organizations plan, buy and deploy the technology.

The announcement doesn’t say when the group will meet, when it will deliver recommendations, or whether those recommendations will be made public.

Carney’s AI for All strategy targets an additional $200 billion in economic growth and 250,000 new AI-related jobs over five years. The government also wants AI adoption to rise from just over 12% to 60% by 2034, and says the strategy will provide up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placements for young Canadians.

In September, Carney also launched Digital Transformation Canada, a new federal organization tasked with modernizing government services and using federal purchasing power to help Canadian digital and AI companies commercialize their technology.

Final shots

Ottawa hasn’t said when the council will report or whether its recommendations will be public. Watch for the first sign of how visible its advice will be outside government.
“Sovereign infrastructure” is now part of the council’s brief, but the release doesn’t define what that means in practice. Where AI runs, where data sits, and how Ottawa thinks about suppliers are the details to watch.
AI for All aims to move adoption from just over 12% to 60% by 2034. The council’s recommendations should show what Ottawa thinks needs to happen between those two numbers.