Ottawa, ON – The Digital Governance Council today reaffirms its commitment to advancing Canada’s digital sovereignty and leadership in global digital governance, marking a year of unprecedented progress and international recognition.
We are living in a time of profound uncertainty. Around the world, nations are competing not only in trade or defence but in setting the rules of the digital age. Standards for artificial intelligence, data governance, and cybersecurity are fast becoming the new instruments of power.
In this contest, rules are not simply regulations; they are the architecture of sovereignty. That's why the work of the Council matters now more than ever.
Over the past year, the Digital Governance Council moved decisively from setting standards to actively shaping systems that citizens, businesses, and governments rely on. Its impact is being felt in the lives of Canadians. Across Canada, the Council’s national standards are helping municipalities secure online voting, ensuring democracy keeps pace with technology. They are enabling health networks to protect patient privacy while improving care, supporting cities in using data to make smarter housing and planning decisions and helping small and medium-sized businesses innovate responsibly with AI.
And the world is taking notice. Canadian approaches are increasingly being cited around the world as models for reform, from European researchers citing the Council’s national standards in cybersecurity and online voting as models for the next generation of secure, transparent, and people-centred digital governance to major trade corridors in Asia relying on the Council’s verification programs to reduce barriers to cross-border trade.
In the past year, the Council verified digital practices across sectors and organizations at six times the rate of the previous year, advanced over 50 national standards and specifications, mobilized over 25 strategic partnerships and engaged across over 25 countries and 7 global regions, bringing the Council’s knowledge and expertise to the front lines of practice and policy.
Through the Executive Forum, Digital Governance Council members continue to address the most pressing digital policy challenges of our time. Together this past year, our members have helped define Canada’s AI Strategy for the Public Service, addressed the convergence of AI, cybersecurity, and trust infrastructure and informed Canada’s positions at the G7 Summit on issues of sovereignty, artificial intelligence, and quantum.
As the Digital Governance Council looks to the year ahead, its focus remains clear. The organization will continue working to ensure Canadians can access digital services that are secure and trusted, to safeguard data and advance sovereign digital infrastructure that underpins the economy and democracy and equips Canada’s workforce and innovators with the tools to compete and lead globally. These priorities reflect the Council enduring commitment to building a digital future founded on trust, accountability, and shared prosperity for all Canadians.
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At the Digital Governance Council’s latest Executive Forum meeting on October 6, 2025, Chief Executive Officer, Keith Jansa, had the profound honour of presenting to Council members the 2025 Annual Report in Canada’s upper chamber. The full report is now available in the Member Portal.