Canada Signals Global AI Ambition at TECH7 2025
Canada is positioning itself as a global leader in artificial intelligence, anchored by sovereign digital infrastructure and a commitment to inclusive growth — that was the message from the Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, at Tuesday's TECH7 Summit in Ottawa.
Digital Nova Scotia’s Derek Leung attended the virtual event, which brought together more than 200 government, industry and tech leaders to discuss “Building Trust and Accelerating AI Adoption," a key priority for Canada as host of the 2025 G7 Presidency.
A vision for "AI for All"
“Canada is positioned to be a leader in AI globally,” Solomon told attendees, highlighting Canada’s strong AI research and innovation ecosystem and its growing role in the global value chain.
He noted that the digital innovation sector now employs 800,000 people, including 155,000 in AI, across 3,500+ firms attracting more than $30 billion in investment.
“AI for all is very important as AI is a tool to serve people,” Solomon said. “We’re empowering Canadians and Canadian companies to use AI for high-impact productivity gains through adoption. Mass adoption, scale, commercialization, skills training, and jobs. I even should say that again, skills training and education and jobs. That is the whole game here. We gotta get that right.”
The minister acknowledged that AI adoption remains a key challenge for Canada — an area where other G7 nations are moving faster. Encouraging stronger public- and private-sector uptake, Solomon called for greater emphasis on skills, training, and commercialization to fully capture AI’s productivity potential.
Sovereignty and Collaboration
Solomon emphasized the need for sovereign and secure digital infrastructure to ensure Canada remains “positioned in the digital and the global AI value chain, from cloud to data centres to compute to quantum capacity.”
He also teased a major policy announcement on the horizon:
“In the next number of weeks, I'll be launching a major Canadian quantum program to ensure that Canada's leadership in quantum remains at the forefront of this industry, and that Canada will work with our G7 partners to make sure that the quantum industry — quantum technologies — are used in the same ways that we want AI to be used. In a secure, trustworthy, beneficial way. Quantum matters, and that program is coming.”
While emphasizing national capability, Solomon reiterated that collaboration remains central — highlighting that Canada’s approach to tech and data sovereignty must remain aligned with its allies.
“Every nation needs to build up their sovereign capacity, but sovereignty does not mean solitude," he said. “Canada's message is simple. We are open for partnership. We are grounded in trust. We are ambitious in our scope. We are committed to raising the quality of life. And we are committed to building AI for all.”
G7 Consensus on Responsible AI
Earlier in the day, Cindy Termorshuizen, Deputy Minister for the G7 Summit, opened the event by noting broad agreement among G7 leaders on AI priorities: accelerating AI adoption in the public sector, supporting SMEs, addressing energy challenges and enabling “data free flow with trust” across borders.
She also announced the launch of a G7 AI Network, connecting experts across member governments to develop a roadmap for scaling AI projects and a catalog of open-source, shareable solutions.
TECH7, established in 2021, unites national technology associations from the G7 countries, including Canada's TECHNATION to collaborate on digital governance, sustainable innovation, and emerging technologies.
Closing out the Summit, Kevin d’Entremont, the new President and CEO of TECHNATION, officially passed the TECH7 presidency to France, represented by Véronique Tournier of Numeum. The next TECH7 Summit will take place in Paris, France, in 2026.
As Nova Scotia’s tech association, Digital Nova Scotia continues to monitor national and global developments in AI and digital policy that shape opportunities for local innovators. Events like TECH7 underscore the importance of aligning regional capacity with national strategy — ensuring Atlantic Canada’s tech ecosystem remains connected to Canada’s leadership in responsible and inclusive innovation.
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