Diverse cross-section of digital leaders come together on April 23, 2025 to address the critical crossroads facing Canada in an era of global disruption, AI transformation, quantum innovation, and financial decentralization.

Meeting Snapshot

Discussions highlighted that Canada risks losing ground, economically, technologically, and geopolitically, if it does not move from rhetoric to action. The forum reflected a shared commitment to foresight, coordination, and inclusive leadership in building sovereign capabilities, standards, and foundational digital infrastructure to protect, defend and succeed.

Call to Action

Canada’s long-term prosperity, security, and sovereignty depend on decisive leadership, cross-sector collaboration, along with bold public and private sector investment in sovereign capabilities, especially in strategic areas like AI, quantum applications, and digital infrastructure.

The time for incremental change is over. Policymakers, industry leaders, educators, and innovators are called to come together to implement bold, coordinated strategies that secure Canada’s technological future.

A Blueprint for Leadership in a Disrupted World

As the world navigates a period marked by economic fragmentation, geopolitical tensions, and accelerating technological change, Canada faces mounting pressure to confirm its strategic direction. A recent strategic policy forum, convened by the Digital Governance Council in collaboration with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Digital, Council of Canadian Innovators and Global Affairs Canada, brought together a diverse cross-section of digital leaders from public policy, academia, industry, and civil society leading up to the June 2025 G7 Summit and ministerial meetings yet to follow.

Through a series of interlinked discussions, the forum examined Canada’s vulnerabilities and strengths across national security, technological innovation, economic policy, and digital governance. What emerged was an urgent call for proactive, values-driven leadership anchored in sovereign national capacity, global partnerships, and a long-term strategic mindset.

Canada at a Crossroads in the Face of Global Disruptions in Trade, Technology, and Security

The forum opened with a sober analysis of Canada’s position in a shifting geopolitical and economic landscape. Discussions drew parallels between the current global context and the 1930s, highlighting rising protectionism, supply chain insecurity, and weakening multilateral institutions. Rising global instability, manifesting through trade tensions, strategic decoupling, and shifting alliances, has heightened the urgency for Canada to strengthen its sovereign capacity and avoid its passive approach that risks erosion of both market access and political agency.

There was consensus around the need for Canada to develop actionable strategies that enhance its ability to act independently in key domains such as energy, AI, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructure. Rather than retreat into reactive policy or overdependence on traditional alliances, Canada was urged to assert its leadership through deliberate public and private sector investments in sovereign capacity, particularly in digital infrastructure, energy independence, and standards-setting for emerging technologies.

Key Strategic Directions:

• Establish a Digital Sovereignty Accord to secure Canadian intellectual property and governance over critical technologies.
• Actively shape standards and governance frameworks in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, and digital trade.
• Ensure domestic control over key infrastructure, including communications, computing, and natural resources.

Recommended Public-Private Sector Initiatives:

• Develop an integrated national strategy that combines national security/defence, economic resilience, and innovation.
• Build strategic alliances with like-minded partners, including the EU, UK, Japan, Australia, and select nations from developing economies, and establish a multilateral framework for the mutual recognition and equivalence of each other’s respective frameworks governing AI, cybersecurity, and digital service delivery.
• Stimulate domestic innovation ecosystems to attract and retain high-value talent.

AI and the Future of Canada’s Economy

The forum highlighted a persistent challenge that while Canada is a leader in AI research, it lags in deployment and commercialization. Only a small fraction of businesses plans to adopt AI in the near term, signaling a structural gap between technological capacity and economic utilization. Without significant changes, this underutilization could result in further declining productivity and reduced global competitiveness.

AI was framed as a nation-building tool, one that can democratize access to services, enhance economic inclusion, and improve public-private sector performance. But doing so requires cultural and institutional change, alongside coordinated public-private sector leadership.

Key Strategic Directions:

• Craft a cohesive national framework for responsible AI, aligned with Canadian values and international norms.
• Design agile regulatory environments that encourage innovation without compromising supervision.
• Classify AI infrastructure as critical infrastructure and essential to national resilience.

Recommended Public-Private Sector Initiatives:

• Introduce AI literacy programs across education systems, starting at the K–12 level.
• Commission and coordinate national AI policy and public engagement.
• Expand sovereign computing infrastructure to host secure, scalable AI applications in Canada.

Security and Sovereignty in a Technological Era

The forum’s national security dialogue emphasized that Canada’s national security advantage is not in military size but in strategic uniqueness, especially in Arctic control, quantum technology, and other dual-use technologies. Canada’s unique advantages from its geography to its clean energy resources and scientific expertise are seen as leverage points in building next-generation defence and data capabilities.

Discussions further underscored the strategic role of quantum sensing, communication and computing technologies, not just in research but as a national asset that bridges commercial innovation and defence preparedness. Data sovereignty, cybersecurity, and technological self-reliance were positioned as core pillars of a modern security strategy.

Key Strategic Directions:

• Integrate quantum technologies and secure cloud infrastructure into Canada’s national security roadmap.
• Create a NATO-aligned innovation hub focused on dual-use technologies.
• Overhaul procurement practices to better include Canadian scaleups and non-traditional defence innovators.

Recommended Public-Private Sector Initiatives:

• Establish a pan-Canadian innovation network linking universities, immigrant talent, and high-growth ventures while protection domestic intellectual property.
• Fund quantum R&D that advances both civilian and defence objectives and counts towards the NATO spending targets.
• Embed cybersecurity and data sovereignty standards in all infrastructure projects.

Modernizing Financial Systems in a Digital Economy

The final discussion explored how global financial systems are undergoing profound shifts, driven by the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain, stablecoins, and digital assets. While Canada advanced fintech regulation slowly, outdated frameworks and a lack of coordinated policy now place it at risk of falling behind global peers.

A coordinated public-private sector approach to digital finance, rooted in transparency, innovation, and risk mitigation, was seen as essential to preserving monetary sovereignty, supporting domestic growth, and protecting consumers.

Key Strategic Directions:

• Implement open banking to drive competition and financial inclusion.
• Upgrade payment infrastructure to enable real-time, secure transactions.
• Facilitate the development of stablecoins in Canada as a trusted digital currency option.
• Apply coherent, activity-based regulations to digital financial services.

Recommended Public-Private Sector Initiatives:

• Launch a national crypto and digital currency strategy.
• Strengthen support for Canadian fintech ventures to scale globally.
• Pursue international regulatory equivalence to minimize systemic risks and capital flight.

Key Messages

• Digital Sovereignty: Assert control over digital infrastructure, develop binding intellectual property rules, and lead in standard-setting across AI, cybersecurity data governance and quantum.
• AI Adoption: Despite world-class research, Canada lags in commercial AI use. A reworked national AI strategy and investment in sovereign digital infrastructure are urgently needed.
• Quantum & Security: Canada’s geographic and energy advantages position it uniquely to lead in quantum technologies for both civil and military applications.
• Financial Innovation: Fragmented regulations hinder growth in crypto and fintech. Modernizing payments, enabling open banking, and building a regulatory framework that fosters innovation while protecting sovereignty is necessary.