AI Minister Evan Solomon speaks at the ALL IN artificial intelligence conference in Montreal. Photo courtesy ALL IN
Canada is putting itself on a deadline.
At the ALL IN conference in Montreal this week, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon announced a new AI Task Force that has just 30 days to deliver recommendations for the federal government’s national strategy.
The group will focus on how the country can strengthen research, boost commercialization, and build infrastructure while addressing safety and trust.
The task force will work on an accelerated 30day timeline and is expected to report back in November, with the recommendations feeding into the national AI strategy the government aims to publish later this year.
The work is divided into eight themes: research and talent, adoption across industry and government, commercialization, scaling champions and attracting investment, safe AI and public trust, education and skills, infrastructure, and security.
For business leaders, the signal is that Canada wants to move from talking about AI to setting rules and making investments that will shape how companies build and use the technology.
The composition of the group also matters. Members of the task force include a mix of academics and executives, from Joelle Pineau of Cohere (formerly head of AI research at Meta) to Patrick Pichette, the former Google CFO, and James Neufeld of Samdesk.
Why the sprint matters now
The decision to move quickly reflects how fast AI adoption is reshaping industries. Businesses across sectors are experimenting with automation, predictive analytics, and generative tools, but government policy has lagged.
By asking for recommendations in just one month, Ottawa is trying to match the pace of technology and send a signal that it intends to play a more active role in shaping how Canadians use and benefit from AI.
“Advancing the safe adoption and accelerated development of AI in Canada, while strengthening our digital sovereignty, is essential to building the strongest economy in the G7,” Solomon said in a statement. “That is why we launched the new AI Strategy Task Force to bring together Canada’s top minds to shape our path forward. Canada helped invent modern AI. The Government of Canada is committed to helping build the future with it — by Canadians, for Canadians, and for the world.”
For companies, the speed and scope of this work mean upcoming recommendations could influence decisions on investment, procurement, and partnerships.
If Canada sets clear priorities on infrastructure and commercialization, there’s potential to reduce reliance on foreign platforms and create more room for domestic firms to grow. If it sets strong guardrails on public trust and safety, businesses will need to show how their use of AI meets those expectations.
Either way, the task force’s conclusions will ripple into boardrooms quickly.
Ownership and longterm competitiveness
One of the core debates around AI in Canada is whether the country will own the intellectual property, data, and algorithms that create value, or whether it will become a buyer of technologies developed elsewhere.
This is a question for policymakers, and also a critical factor for businesses making decisions about where to invest and how to scale.
That debate will now play out inside the task force itself.
Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), was named as a member of the group alongside other industry and academic leaders.
In a statement, he said the task force is an important chance to ensure Canada “doesn’t just adopt AI — we lead in commercializing it, regulating it responsibly, and building worldclass companies here at home.”
That focus on ownership links back to the broader conversation about digital sovereignty. As Canadian companies race to adopt AI, the question is not only how quickly they can put tools to work, but also who ultimately benefits from the value being created.
The sprint task force won’t settle that debate in a month, but its recommendations could mark a turning point in how Ottawa approaches both innovation and security.
The group will deliver its report by Nov. 1, according to CCI, and the government said it plans to release its full national AI strategy later this year, meaning businesses shouldn’t have to wait long to see how the task force’s work translates into policy.
For now, the task force is a signal that Canada is ready to move at the pace of technology rather than the pace of bureaucracy.
The full task force includes: Ajay Agrawal (Creative Destruction Lab), Benjamin Bergen (Council of Canadian Innovators), Olivier Blais (Moov AI), Michael Bowling (Google DeepMind), Shelly Bruce (Communications Security Establishment), Cari Covent (Canadian Tire Corporation), Dan Debow (Build Canada), Diane Gutiw (CGI), Garth Gibson (Vector Institute), Arvind Gupta (University of Toronto), Adam Keating (CoLab), Alex LaPlante (RBC), Gail Murphy (University of British Columbia), David Naylor (University of Toronto), James Neufeld (Samdesk), MarcÉtienne Ouimette (Amazon Web Services), Taylor Owen (McGill University), Joelle Pineau (Cohere), Patrick Pichette (Inovia Capital), Sam Ramadori (LawZero), Ian Rae (Aptum), Michael Serbinis (League), Sonia Sennik (Creative Destruction Lab), Louis Têtu (Coveo), Natiea Vinson (First Nations Technology Council), Mary Wells (University of Waterloo).
Final shots
- Speed is the variable to watch, with legitimacy resting on transparent tradeoffs among competitiveness, safety, and trust.
- Treating ownership of data, IP, and algorithms as economic policy puts a spotlight on where value and leverage sit.
- Capacity sets the ceiling on ambition, since infrastructure, skills, and compute access shape who can act on any guidance.
