12/10/2025
Digital infrastructure is power. Who wields it?
Budget 2025 commits $925.6 million to build a Sovereign Canadian Cloud and national AI compute infrastructure, a foundational shift in how our country manages data and delivers services. While the promise of good technology is not in doubt, the real issues at stake are our freedoms, protection from surveillance, and accountable governance in a digital era.
The urgent, unanswered questions are about control, not capability:
· Who audits the algorithms? As governments worldwide deploy AI for everything from fraud detection to public services, the risks of "black-box" decision-making, bias, and error are real. We need enforceable mandates for Explainable AI (XAI) and independent, third-party algorithmic audits to ensure systems are fair and their logic is traceable.
· What protections exist for Canadians? Data sovereignty, keeping our data under Canadian law is a stated goal. However, using global cloud providers creates a shared security model and risks subjecting Canadian data to foreign laws. Protections must be more than contractual; they require robust, Canadian-controlled encryption and clear laws.
· Who builds, controls, and owns the data? Will this public infrastructure be built by a handful of powerful private entities, leading to undue influence? Canadians must own and control their data. The government must maintain exclusive control over encryption keys, ensuring data cannot be accessed without Canadian authorization, even if stored on foreign-operated servers.
This cannot be done in secret. Digital infrastructure is a public asset and must be subject to full parliamentary scrutiny. We need transparent frameworks built on algorithmic governance, public oversight dashboards, and human accountability for automated decisions. The goal is not to hinder innovation but to ensure it serves the public good with unwavering transparency and accountability.