Carney to Help Set Agenda for Ottawa's New National AI Council

Prime Minister Mark Carney will play an active role in setting the agenda for Ottawa's new National Council on Artificial Intelligence, the Prime Minister's Office says. The council was launched Oct. 2. The Globe and Mail reported the arrangement Oct. 5.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, the council will take an "all of government" approach to AI advice. That means working across departments rather than through one minister alone. Carney will pay particular attention to files where department mandates overlap.

The council draws its members from research, business, economics and policy. They include AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, as well as Gillian Hadfield, Sanja Fidler and Jordan Jacobs. They also include Eric Lamarre, Louis Vachon, Jody Thomas and Thomas Pitfield. The group includes experts in economics, business and AI, as noted in The Toronto Star in its Oct. 5 account.

The Prime Minister's Office said the council will provide independent, practical advice on Canada's AI transformation. It will advise on the AI for All strategy as it develops, including faster adoption, support for national champions and sovereign AI infrastructure. National champions are Canadian firms able to compete globally. Sovereign infrastructure means computing power and data systems based in Canada.

AI for All was launched June 4, according to the Prime Minister's Office. The plan includes a National AI Literacy Initiative to offer entry-level AI training for all Canadians.

The National Council will operate alongside two sectoral tables. A separate advisory council on AI and labour held its first meeting Monday with Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon. A separate advisory council on AI and culture was launched in March as a joint initiative of Solomon and Culture Minister Marc Miller.

Ottawa has maintained AI advisory machinery since 2019. Since then, the Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence has advised the government on building Canada's AI strengths and global leadership. Federal materials describe that council as a central reference point drawing on leading AI experts from Canadian industry, civil society, academia and government.

The broader context here is machinery of government, the system that decides who handles what in Ottawa. It is unusual for a prime minister to control an advisory council's agenda this directly. It shortens the distance between outside advice and the centre. It also makes Carney and his office responsible for settling mandate overlaps, rather than leaving departments to negotiate shared files.

In my view, Hill offices should read the membership and the mandate as a package. A council that pairs leading AI researchers with senior figures from business and public policy, and is asked about adoption, national champions and sovereign infrastructure, is built to handle practical choices. Those choices cut across procurement, skills, competition and security. The labour and culture tables can develop sector-specific advice. The National Council is positioned to fit that advice into national strategy.

For provinces, the question to watch is how that fit works in practice. Ottawa can set direction on adoption and infrastructure. Delivery will still run through provincial jurisdiction, postsecondary institutions and private firms. The test for this model will be whether advice described as independent stays that way when the prime minister frames the questions.