CCI's Federal AI Task Force Submission

Canada helped pioneer modern artificial intelligence. Our researchers shaped foundational breakthroughs, our universities attracted top AI talent, and our innovation ecosystem earned global credibility. But in the first commercial wave of AI, Canada has not captured economic leadership. The world's largest AI companies are not Canadian, and the platforms shaping our digital future are being built elsewhere.

With global competition intensifying and geopolitical volatility rising, Canada now faces a choice: become a nation that builds and scales AI companies, or become a branch-plant economy in the most important technology race of our lifetime.

That is why the Council of Canadian Innovators has provided formal recommendations to the federal AI Task Force. CCI President Benjamin Bergen, who serves on the Task Force, says Canada's strategy must reflect our economic reality and global ambitions.

"Canada's North Star for our AI strategy must be scaling the next generation of AI innovation champions, enabled by 'as-Canadian-as-possible' compute and cloud capability."‍

– Benjamin Bergen, President of CCI and Member of the Federal AI Task Force

This vision demands a shift from research-first thinking to industrial execution. Canada's AI research leadership has not translated into scaled commercial success. Meanwhile, countries that acted aggressively to anchor compute infrastructure, talent pipelines, and data assets at home are accelerating ahead.

CCI’s submission identifies three strategic priorities. First, Canada must enable innovators to scale by addressing four critical gaps: access to talent, access to capital, access to customers, and the right marketplace and regulatory frameworks. Second, we must build sovereign compute infrastructure — data centres and cloud capacity under Canadian control — to support sensitive commercial and government workloads without dependence on foreign platforms. Third, we must shift focus to high-value applications powered by proprietary data and intellectual property, positioning Canadian firms to capture value as the AI economy matures beyond foundation models.

The next chapter of global competition is being written in data centres and cloud architecture. Canada must build domestic capacity to support sensitive commercial and government workloads. The goal is not autarky, but strategic independence. Without sovereign infrastructure, Canadian companies and public institutions will depend on foreign platforms and foreign laws — and lose leverage in future technology cycles.

Canada cannot out-spend global superpowers, but we can lead in strategic niches where we already have deep capabilities, trusted institutions, and rich datasets: health, robotics, agriculture, geospatial intelligence, and physical-world AI applications. These sectors reward precision, domain expertise, and secure data — areas where Canada has an advantage if it chooses to deploy it.

Canada's AI opportunity is real, but it is not permanent. If we fail to scale Canadian firms, others will scale into Canada. Nations that control AI platforms will shape global standards, economic growth, and national security.

The choice is stark: build here, or rent forever.

To learn more about CCI’s federal advocacy on behalf of Canadian scale-ups, contact Daniel Perry, Director of Federal Affairs.

Download the PDF version HERE.