Prime Minister Mark Carney has launched AI for All, Canada’s new national artificial intelligence strategy, with a promise to turn the country’s AI research strength into jobs, skills, companies, and broader economic growth.
Announced in Toronto, the five-year strategy is built around three priorities: building trust in AI, creating opportunity for Canadians, and reinforcing Canadian sovereignty over the infrastructure, data, talent, and companies shaping the technology.
For Canada’s tech talent ecosystem, the headline commitment is a major one. The federal government says AI for All targets an additional $200 billion in economic growth, the creation of 250,000 new AI-related jobs over the next five years, and up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placement opportunities for young Canadians.
The strategy also aims to increase AI adoption across Canada from just over 12 percent today to 60 percent by 2034.
That adoption gap is central to the government’s case for the new strategy. While Canada has world-class AI talent and one of the fastest-growing digital sectors in the G7, the Prime Minister’s Office says the country remains among the slowest to adopt AI at scale.
“This gap risks undermining public trust, driving Canadian talent and startups abroad, and leaving critical parts of our AI ecosystem under foreign control,” the announcement stated.
To help close that gap, Ottawa is launching a National AI Literacy Initiative that will offer entry-level AI training for Canadians. The program is expected to reach one million entry-level post-secondary students and train more than 3,000 educators with AI learning kits for classrooms.
The strategy also promises access to trusted AI agents for every post-secondary student, across fields including arts, commerce, STEM, and medicine.
For workers already in the labour market, AI for All includes training and upskilling opportunities for mid-career professionals and frontline workers, including employer-led training focused on skills needed in AI-enabled workplaces.
“Canada’s AI future is powered by workers,” said Patty Hajdu, Minister of Jobs and Families. “As AI is changing the future of work, we are supporting workers to adapt with it.”
Small and medium-sized businesses are another major focus. The federal government says it will help SMEs adopt AI to support workers, raise productivity, and drive breakthroughs in sectors including health, energy, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, robotics, and government services.
The strategy also includes a sovereignty push, with plans to build a public AI supercomputer and invest in sovereign compute and cloud infrastructure. The government says this will help Canadian researchers, businesses, and public institutions build and adopt AI on Canadian terms.
Ottawa also plans to support globally competitive Canadian AI companies by improving access to growth capital, using government procurement as a strategic anchor customer, and helping companies access compute, commercialization resources, and intellectual property protections.
The government says it will continue expanding Canada’s AI talent base through investments in the CIFAR AI Chairs program and accelerated entry pathways for highly skilled workers through the Global Talent Stream.
Canada currently has three National AI Institutes: the Vector Institute in Toronto, Mila in Montreal, and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute in Edmonton.
“Canada’s new AI for All Strategy is about putting artificial intelligence to work for Canadians,” said Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation. “It will give people the confidence to use AI safely, help businesses adopt it, and ensure more of the value is created here at home.”
The strategy arrives as countries around the world compete for the talent, infrastructure, and companies that will define the AI economy.
For Canada, the challenge is no longer simply producing world-class AI research. It is turning that research into domestic adoption, globally competitive companies, and career opportunities for Canadians.
With AI for All, the federal government is making a clear bet: Canada’s next AI advantage will depend not only on researchers and startups, but on whether students, workers, employers, and public institutions can learn to use AI at scale.