Canada’s National AI Strategy: Rising to the Ambitions of Canada, and of IVADO

On June 4, 2026, the Government of Canada unveiled its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, AI for All. The result of a year of consultations engaging more than 11,000 Canadians, this roadmap structured around six pillars spanning rights protection, technological sovereignty, training, adoption, and international partnerships, marks a decisive milestone for the country’s future in the age of AI. It builds on a decade of collective work to which IVADO, its member universities, and its vast ecosystem of research partners and public and private organizations have contributed substantially, in close collaboration with the Government of Canada, most notably through the ambitious R3AI project for the development and adoption of robust, reasoning, and responsible AI.

“The publication of this national strategy is an important milestone for Canada’s AI ecosystem,” says Mélanie Bosc, Interim Chief Executive Officer of IVADO. “It builds on collective work to which IVADO has been contributing for nearly a decade, and opens the door to an even more structured collaboration with the federal government, national institutes, and our academic and industry partners, in service of an AI that benefits all of Canadian society.”

A Vision Grounded in Science and Responsibility

The Strategy places trust at the heart of its vision: trust in institutions, in AI systems, and in our collective capacity to shape their development. This is familiar ground for IVADO, whose work on governance, democracy, and responsibility reflects the same conviction, that scientific rigour and social relevance are not in tension, but mutually reinforcing. Its research on AI and electoral processes, the Code of Conduct for Political Parties on the Responsible Use of AI, and its policy statements on AI and the defence of democracy and public administration are concrete illustrations of this commitment.

“AI governance cannot be an afterthought. It must be built from the ground up, with rigour and in dialogue with society. That is exactly what IVADO is working on,” says Catherine Régis, Director of Social Innovation and International Policy at IVADO and Co-Scientific Director of the Canadian AI Safety Institute.

The sectors the Strategy identifies as priorities, including health and life sciences, transportation, environment and energy, and supply chains, also correspond to the axes around which IVADO’s research clusters have been built or intend to grow.

“Fundamental research and social relevance are not in tension, they feed one another. That is what IVADO and its R3AI project embody, and what this national strategy calls on us to amplify,” said Aaron Courville, Scientific Director of IVADO.

Training, Transfer, and Impact

Making Canada a nation at the forefront of responsible AI requires investing in training at every level, from classrooms to professional environments, from major urban centres to remote communities. IVADO is committed to this work, with particular attention to francophone communities outside Quebec, Indigenous youth, and the communities working to ensure that Quebec culture and Indigenous languages are fully represented in the systems of tomorrow. This commitment takes concrete form through initiatives such as the training program Professional Practice in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Era, developed with Tech3Lab, IVADO’s public library support program in Quebec, and the partnerships established to help train youth from remote Indigenous communities with Printemps Numérique.

The adoption of AI by organizations, particularly SMEs, is a challenge the Strategy names clearly, and one that sits at the heart of IVADO’s priorities. Technology transfer is central to this ambition: translating research into concrete solutions that organizations can access and use to drive broader adoption across Canada.

Beyond technical tools, the question of worker-centred AI will guide IVADO’s next phase of work, how to ensure that transformation benefits people, not just systems. Internationally, IVADO’s collaborations, including with Mexico on questions of responsible AI and human rights, align with the vision of scientific diplomacy that the federal strategy calls on Canada to cultivate.

AI for All charts a coherent path forward. IVADO sees in it an invitation to deepen a longstanding collaboration with the federal government, national institutes, and academic and industry partners, in service of an AI that benefits all of Canadian society.