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Carney's budget reveals $925.6 million plan to support 'sovereign public AI infrastructure'
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is proposing in the 2025 budget to follow through on a whopping investment to harness the power of artificial intelligence over the next five years.
Budget 2025 , tabled Tuesday afternoon by Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne , provides $925.6 million to support “sovereign public AI infrastructure.”
The investment is intended to ensure Canada has the capacity to compete globally within a secure environment. ($800 million of the total amount will be sourced from funds put aside in the last federal budget.)
“This will help businesses seize the opportunities from AI, creating new jobs and economic growth,” states the budget document, by boosting AI computing availability and supporting access for public and private research.
Ottawa plans to allocate $25 million over six years, beginning in 2025-26, and $4.5 million going forward for Statistics Canada to implement the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Measurement Program. TechStat will measure how AI is used by Canadian organizations, understand its impact on society, the labour force, and the economy.
Meanwhile, Evan Solomon , federal minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation will be engaging with industry to identify and enter into agreements with new AI infrastructure projects deemed to be promising. The budget also states that the government intends to enable the Canada Infrastructure Bank to invest in AI infrastructure projects.
Over the next five years, $656.9 million will be allocated to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to develop and commercialize dual civilian-military technologies in a range of industries, including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
Looking inward, one of Ottawa’s principal aims for AI use is to increase operational efficiencies within the federal civil service.
Ottawa intends to set up an Office of Digital Transformation which will implement technological solutions across the federal government. The Office will leverage expertise from the private sector to hasten AI adoption.
For example, Budget 2025 announced that Shared Services Canada, in partnership with the Department of National Defence and the Communications Security Establishment, will develop a made-in-Canada AI tool to be deployed across the federal government. Shared Services Canada will partner with top Canadian AI companies to develop this internal tool. This work is aiming to protect Canada’s digital sovereignty, keeping government information safe, while creating opportunities for the technology sector.
Several government departments will be utilizing AI going forward, according to the budget.
The department of justice will integrate AI, advanced analytics and automation tools to streamline routine tasks, enhance decision-making and free employees to focus on higher-value strategic work.
Transport Canada will use AI and automation to optimize back-office activities and reduce the costs of resources used for repetitive tasks, while looking to delivery that focuses on self-service and technology-enabled solutions.
Public Services and Procurement Canada will implement digital delivery of procurement-related documents to better manage project delivery.
Employment and Social Development Canada will increase its use of artificial intelligence to streamline and automate internal processes with the goal of meeting up to 15 per cent in savings targets over three years.
Finance Canada will also shift toward greater automation and AI research capabilities.
A newer technology, known as Quantum computing is also of great interest to Ottawa for its potential to solve “computing problems that are currently considered to be intractable … including in such areas as cybersecurity, finance, and logistics.”
The budget proposes, through the Defence Industrial Strategy, to provide $334.3 million over five years to strengthen Canada’s quantum ecosystem.
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