Friday January 23, 2026 | QUEBEC CITY [Reporting from VICTORIA, BC]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, addressed media today during the prime minister’s two-day cabinet planning session in Quebec City.
“We are very excited that we’re working together to build our plan on a safe sovereign country,” the AI minister said.
“We saw the PM coming back from his remarkable trip in China securing $7 billion in trade. Really helping some of our key sectors…. obviously about Canada’s role in the world and the role that middle powers have, and the control that we have over the things that we can control,” Solomon said in a brief introduction to reporters.
He briefly touched on creating jobs and investing in key sectors as part of the trade missions, both for today’s jobs and those of tomorrow.
Solomon is also the Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
A focus on AIO this year:
IT and an AI strategy will be a focus in Q1 (for government that is April to June), said Solomon. Details on the scale and scope of it will be announced soon.
The new policies need to be built on a foundation of trust, said Solomon. That will drive adoption of AI, he said, saying that legislation around AI will help build that trust. Jobs using AI will follow from that.
Key pillars will be trust, talent and ensuring that Canadian companies have the capital compete and the customers in order to thrive and build, he outlined.
“We are ready to invest in Canada, in Canadian companies, and making sure they have the talent and sovereign infrastructure,” said Minister Solomon.
There are more than 3,000 AI companies in Canada, said Solomon toda, adding that 800,000 people work in the digital sector in Canada. The digital sector is the largest and fastest growing sector of the economy, said Solomon, adding: “We want investment in that, we are encouraging investment.”
Investment in AI:
There is a $300 million Compute Access fund that small and medium-size companies are using in order to grow, Solomon said. The government has to “invest and adopt, and then we have to create the conditions where investment here — in our innovators is happening”, he said.
Government is supporting three national institutes around the development of AI. One of those is Cohere — with a deal announced in August 2025 — to start a $100 million investment science fund.
There is also an MOU with Coveo as signed in December 2025 by which the federal government will assess how generative and agentic AI, advanced search and personalized recommendation technologies can improve service delivery for Canadians, reduce administrative burden and make government operations more efficient and responsive.
He says that Canada leads in frontier research on AI. “We have to convert that into commercialization and we’re doing that right now,” the AI Minister said.
US threat:
“The US foreign policy is their business. That’s what they’re doing. Canadians want sovereign choices, to make sure they are safe, sovereign and secure,” says AI Minister Solomon.
“Let’s not sugar-coat it. The Prime Minister never does,” said Solomon today. “Some cleavages will be exacerbated, and some folks are going to try. We understand that,” he said. “The job is to continue to investmet in Canadians, to give them the opportunities, because this is the best place to live, to invest and thrive.”
“That the case we need to make economically every day. And that’s wh ywe’re moving with urgency to do just that.”
Building AI resilience:
“That means they need the tools to build their own future. That means expanding trade opportunities,” said Solmon with regard to building resilience.
“Building resilience and the ingredients of resilience matter: economic resilience, rule of law, trade resilience — that’s exactly what we’re investing (in) and that’s what we’re building,” said Minister Solomon today.
All levels of government:
Governments at any level should be providing security and opportunity, said Solomon today. “It’s incumbent on any government: provincial, municipal or federal, and to make sure we hear the concerns of citizens and provide them a sense of security.”
Solomon listed off the Carney themes of protecting things Canadians care about — their values,. including health care, child care, and dental care. “So those core services that make Canadians feel safe, secure and give them opportunties.”
“Then protecting economic opportunities,” said Solomon, citing the tax break that was given to middle income Canadians when Carney first came into office. Though there is never mention by Carney’s federal politicians about the loss of the consumer carbon tax rebate to the lowest income Canadians — a choice at the start of Carney’s government that means a loss of real dollars every three months for that income group.
The best place is Canada:
Canada is the best place to live, invest and thrive, says Solomon.
Canada is strong economically and from a values perspective, the minister said in response to a media question about rumblings of Alberta separatism. He notes that the Major Projects Office led by Dawn Farrell is in Alberta: “Because we’re building all across Canada and of course in Alberta,” said Solomon today.
Canadians want trust, said Solomon, saying that the Liberal government is doing “the legislative part” and adopting technology that will give people jobs.
Privacy rights & online harms:
The AI minister’s office is working on modernizing privacy laws including around deep fakes, children’s information, heritage and copyright. Solomon says he is very interested in “the right to deletion”.
The privacy commissioner has started an investigation in to X. Added an investigation into the use of deep fakes. Solomon notes that X has very recently changed their policy around the app that generates ‘nudification’.
“The non-consensual sharing of sexualized imagery and deep-fake imagery is a form of violence,” says AI Minister Solomon.
He says he is glad that Bill C-16 (tabled by Minister Sean Fraser in December 2025) that would criminalize that sort of activity to protect the vulnerable.
Solomon also noted the Online Harms Act (a bill coming forward from Minister Marc Miller) that would provide protections– including a ban on social media use by children under age 14 — as part of a suite of legislation to provide trust.
The Liberal government introduced an online harms act in 2024, which would have imposed new requirements on social media companies and created an online regulator.
The bill — which never became law — also would have put in place a 24-hour takedown provision for content that sexually victimizes a child and for intimate content shared without consent, including deepfakes.
Under Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Liberals signalled last year that they would not bring the bill back in the same form, but would instead tackle aspects of online harms in other legislation.
===== RELATED:
NEWS SECTIONS: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | 45th PARLIAMENT of CANADA |