Government Of Canada Launches Inaugural Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy For The Federal Public Service

An Overview

On March 4^th, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat released the first ever AI strategy for the Government of Canada’s public service. This Strategy is guided by the federal government’s vision that through the responsible adoption of AI, their abilities will be bolstered to deliver world-class services to clients, protect people and interests, achieve a more innovative and efficient workplace, and accelerate the scientific discovery for the benefit of all.

Strategy Priorities

Under the Strategy principles of being human centred, collaborative, ready, and responsible, the following four priorities are advanced:

Priority 1: Central AI Capacity

Gathered from collaboration and consultations across the federal departments, it was determined that there is a need for a central hub to support AI project implementation and knowledge sharing. To develop this federal necessity, the Strategy commits to the below key actions:

Key Action: Establish an AI Centre of Expertise

The AI Centre of Expertise (AI CoE) will complement services offered by existing accelerators and centres by focusing on project support, knowledge sharing, and strategic guidance to support AI adoption and experimentation. It will provide project guidance, advice on common processes, and share best practice, experience, knowledge and code. It will also encourage interdepartmental or whole-of-government collaboration on solutions for common needs. Furthermore, the AI CoE will help business teams to:

Identify high-value use cases for AI integration
Support data readiness
Support with procurement, governance, assessments, review processes, and other requirements.
Act as a convenor for government-wise knowledge sharing; an accelerator for AI solutions to meet common Government of Canada needs; and a monitor of progress on federal AI adoption.

Key Action: Enable Common Infrastructure

The provision of common infrastructure that will enable AI adoption will be ensured and the adoption of existing enterprise solutions will be promoted. This includes:

High-performance computing (HPC) and cloud infrastructure that is available, secure, and scalable to meet the demands of AI projects.
Common data and information management systems and practices to support sharing, scaling, and agentic capabilities across Government of Canada platforms.
Access to approved models, services, and application programming interfaces (APIs) within common Government of Canada cloud platforms to build or deploy systems.
Access to common AI solutions and capabilities in vendor solutions through a standard Government of Canada platform service.

Additional to this key action, the federal government has determined that where possible, they will support Canadian suppliers and vendors to promote a growing, secure, and sovereign Canadian AI industry.

Key Action: Identify and Develop a Lighthouse Project

The Strategy proposes the development of a lighthouse project that will satisfy both an enterprise-wide need and provide opportunity to develop the Government of Canada’s AI adoption. The first project identified will have the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat work with the Translation Bureau at Public Services and Procurement Canada to scale its self-serve language hub pilot across the federal government. Through the developing, testing, and delivering on this lighthouse project, which will be facilitated through the AI CoE, it will serve as:

A test case to identify barriers and project teams’ needs for support during development and obstacles to subsequent customization and scaling.
A pilot for the development of government-wide governance processes.
An opportunity to develop templates and examples of project documentation.
A demonstration of the value of AI use cases.

Priority 2: Policy, Legislation and Governance

The Strategy recognizes the necessity of clear and up-to-date legislation and policy for advancing responsible AI adoption, building public trust, and overcoming institutional resistance. This is particularly evident as in many jurisdictions, some Canadian legislation and federal policy has not been revised to reflect the AI era, while others may be missing key governance considerations, obstruct technological adoptions, or unintentionally introduce bias in data collection. While incremental developments have created a patchwork of policies, they are difficult for AI project teams to understand and navigate. Additionally, the Government of Canada must establish a common model for its AI governance. To address these looming challenges, the Priority advances three key actions:

Key Action: Establish Common AI Governance and Risk Management Frameworks

The Government of Canada commits to establishing common governance and risk management frameworks for the AI lifecycle to provide clear guidance to AI project teams. These frameworks will balance risk and innovation; address the potential risks associated with AI use; incorporate Canadian requirements (such as the need to advance Indigenous data sovereignty); and will reference the security, trust, and reliability controls necessary to ensure continued maintenance and resilience.

Under this initiative, there will be a government-wide governance structure responsible for implementing the governance framework. This will include an AI ethics review board, as well as existing federal governance bodies and organizations, such as the AI Safety Institute.

Key Action: Address Policy and Legislative Alignment, Gaps, and Barriers

The Government of Canada will review and propose changes to instruments that create unnecessary obstacles to AI adoption. This will be accomplished through identifying policy gaps, clarifying roles and responsibilities, addressing legal and policy ambiguities related to privacy and training data, and updating procurement policies and requirements. Additionally, the Government of Canada will also consider ways in which they can better align internal AI policy with the Pan Canadian AI Strategy, the United Nations Declaration Act commitments to Indigenous Data Sovereignty, and with international treaties, legislation and norms.

Key Action: Adopt a ‘Think AI’ Approach

Through a new ‘think AI’ approach, the Government of Canada aims to challenge departments to identify key business problems that could be transformed using AI. To support this, the Government of Canada will require departments to:

Identify three areas, programs or services with business problems that have a high potential to be solved using AI.
Consider solutions and resourcing requirements for AI and its enablers at the outset of initiatives. This will include changes to Treasury Board submissions, Memoranda to Cabinet, and budget and off-cycle funding proposals to incorporate data, AI, compute, and other relevant requirements.
Prioritize AI infrastructure and secure adoption in departmental integrated IT planning processes.

Develop their own AI strategies to ensure alignment and effective use of resources.

Priority 3: Talent and Training

The Government of Canada currently faces a 30% vacancy rate for digital roles, which threatens delivery and creates a dependence upon external contractors. To support its planned AI adoption, the Government of Canada will advance the following key actions:

Key Action: Develop a Training Plan

Building on existing offerings from the Canada School of Public Service, the federal government will develop an evergreen AI training plan for existing public servants. The Training Plan will incorporate general and role-specific training elements and will be directed at increasing the understanding and confidence in using AI.

Through this plan, the Government of Canada will consider ways that AI may reshape the workforce, working with employees and their bargaining agents to prepare public servants for this change through retraining.

Key Action: Benchmark Talent Needs

The federal government will benchmark both talent requirements for AI and its employees’ existing AI knowledge and skills across the enterprise to enable the development of learner personas and identify further training to be offered.

Key Action: Develop a Talent Plan

The federal government will also focus efforts to develop a plan to recruit and retain talent. The to be developed plan will explore recruitment and retention obstacles, flexible data science career pathways, expansion partnerships and programs (such as apprenticeships), and project-based needs.

Priority 4: Engagement, Transparency, and Value to Canadians

The final Priority aims to address a public desire for increased engagement in the process of designing and developing government AI systems, greater transparency about the government’s AI use through labelling, and for information about ways to seek explanations or recourse for decisions. This will be achieved through the key actions of:

Key Action: Strengthen Accountability and Transparency on AI Use

To continue efforts to strengthen and clarify accountabilities for AI use in policy and notifications about AI use, the Government of Canada will introduce new requirements and standard language for the disclosure of AI use, explanations of how an AI system reaches a decision, and information about rights and protections, including how to seek explanations or recourse and how to report problems. Furthermore, the federal government will identify AI capabilities that it will not pursue, will prioritize the establishment of a public register of its AI systems, and will develop and publish alternative oversight processes for when the systems cannot be published.

Key Action: Demonstrate Impact and Value to Canadians

Under this key action, the federal government will develop metrics and performance indicators to demonstrate the impact and value of AI initiatives. Additionally, a framework will also be developed to track AI adoption that will incorporate deployment, collaboration, sharing, and scaling metrics, as well as track departmental investments in the enablers of AI.

Key Action: Commit to Engagement on AI

As aligned with the Directive on Open Government and with the duty to consult, the Government of Canada commits to early and meaningful public and stakeholder engagement on AI initiatives. These engagements will include targeted efforts, including with communities and employees, as well as client participation. Additionally, the Government of Canada will also provide mechanisms for ongoing public feedback and questions on AI used by the federal government.

Federal Approach, Next Steps, and Expectations Going Forth

Under is collective approach, the Government of Canada will continue to pursue the necessary work to advance AI adoption and implementation. In the following months, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat will engage with federal departments on the actions laid out in the AI Strategy to confirm action leads and develop a detailed implementation plan including resources, responsibilities, timelines, and milestones. It will also continue to engage all departments on action implementation to ensure horizontal alignment.

Reference: AI Strategy for the Federal Public Service 2025-2027: Overview – Canada.ca

Sonya is a young professional who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in Political Science and a minor in Law & Society from the University of British Columbia (UBC), and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Toronto (U of T) – Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. During her time at school, Sonya had the opportunity to conduct various research projects for her department, including investigating Greece’s defence expenditures on behalf of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy – Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies.