Science and Research

The committee was studying artificial intelligence (AI) and heard from six witnesses: Arvind Gupta, a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto; Pina D'Agostino, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School; Gail Murphy, vice-president of research and innovation at the University of British Columbia; George Christidis, president and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association; Joëlle Pineau, chief AI officer at Cohere Inc.; and Francis Bradley, president and CEO of Electricity Canada.

Arvind Gupta, speaking from his experience on the federal AI strategy task force, emphasized that Canada must stay at the forefront of foundational AI research and develop a broad talent pool. He recommended that the government identify clear priorities and direct resources to them, rather than taking a scattered approach, and that it begin developing training programs and social safety nets to address potential large-scale employment disruptions from AI.

Pina D'Agostino stressed the need to protect and commercialize Canadian AI intellectual property, noting that six of the ten largest recipients of Canadian-produced AI patents are foreign entities. She recommended expanding university-based IP legal clinics, having tech transfer offices specialize by sector, and reforming copyright law to protect creators whose work is used to train AI models, adding that Canada must also address the growing energy demands of AI.

Gail Murphy, also a member of the federal AI task force, argued that Canada should enhance and expand its AI institute model to serve as hubs bringing together talent from universities, colleges and industry. She recommended focusing on specific areas of global strength, such as AI for health and robotics, establishing pre-competitive industrial R&D centres for critical parts of the AI supply chain, and building large-scale sovereign compute infrastructure through the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.

George Christidis stated that the nuclear industry is critical to meeting the surging electricity demand driven by AI and data centres, noting that most provinces already face a tripling of electricity demand by 2050 without AI. He called for continued government and private sector investment in nuclear projects and an efficient regulatory regime to enable the growth of AI and other sectors, emphasizing that nuclear provides reliable, carbon-free baseload power.

Joëlle Pineau, representing Cohere, the only globally competitive fundamental model laboratory in Canada, argued that the single largest constraint for AI scale-ups is infrastructure. She recommended an expanded national compute strategy, a shared purchasing consortium, and the creation of a national AI data fabric, and urged the federal government to become the first and best customer of Canadian AI through modernized procurement.

Francis Bradley of Electricity Canada stated that global electricity demand from data centres is projected to double by 2026 and that Canada must eliminate barriers to building electricity infrastructure, with regulatory approvals completed within two years. He recommended implementing the clean electricity investment tax credit, including the electricity sector in AI policy discussions from the start, and preparing for new cyber-threats posed by AI, adding that there is currently no electricity sector representative on the federal AI task force.

The meeting was dominated by a procedural debate on a motion to invite Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Mélanie Joly to appear. After extensive discussion, including a failed motion to adjourn the meeting, the committee agreed to extend the AI study by one additional meeting to allow the witnesses who appeared on December 1 to return for questions.