Eleanor Olszewski, the new Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience, and Evan Solomon, the new Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, arrive ahead of a cabinet shuffle at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, on May 13.Patrick Doyle/Reuters
Former journalist Evan Solomon has been appointed Canada’s first minister for artificial intelligence, a newly created role suggesting AI will be a priority for the Liberal government.
Mr. Solomon, whose full title is Minister of AI and Digital Innovation, is a new member of Parliament representing the riding of Toronto Centre. He also assumes responsibility for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
Carney’s new cabinet adds several rookies, moves Anand to Foreign Affairs
Mr. Solomon could face a host of challenges in his role, experts say, including how to increase AI adoption and commercialization, encourage the construction of Canadian-owned and operated data centres, and determining how to regulate AI.
Governments around the world see AI as key to improving productivity and economic growth. Canada has played a huge role in AI development, but critics say the country has failed to capture the economic benefits. The largest and most influential AI companies are based abroad, and many AI patents developed here are owned by foreign corporations.
“This is recognition that we, as a country, need to move faster and think bigger, specifically around AI,” said Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a non-partisan group that represents tech companies.
Some experts had been calling for Canada to appoint a minister for AI. (The portfolio had previously fallen mostly to the minister of innovation, science and industry; on Tuesday, Mélanie Joly was appointed Industry Minister.)
Mark Carney’s new cabinet: A look at the ministers who are in and out
Technation president Angela Mondou and Centre for International Governance Innovation president Paul Samson made the case for an AI minister in an article last year. “AI ambition requires fervent drive from the top with a responsible minister,” they wrote.
The Liberal Party election platform noted the need to “catalyze commercialization” of AI but did not provide many details.
An important way to benefit Canadian AI businesses and increase efficiency in the public sector is for the government to procure products and services from domestic companies, Mr. Bergen said.
“It allows those firms that are selling into government to be able to sell products around the world,” he said.
The Liberals have promised to create a digital transformation office, with a focus on AI procurement.
Last year, the federal government announced a $2-billion program to help companies access AI computing power and encourage them to build data centres.
(Brookfield Asset Management, where Prime Minister Mark Carney previously served as chair, is a big player in data centres. In February, the company said it would spend €20-billion by 2030 to deploy AI infrastructure in France.)
Mr. Solomon needs to ensure that AI data centres are truly sovereign, said Jim Hinton, an intellectual-property lawyer who also writes about innovation policy. Many Canadian companies and government bodies rely on cloud computing and AI infrastructure owned by foreign multinationals.
“He needs to clean the slate from the disastrous AI approach that has put Canada in a subservient economic position,” Mr. Hinton said. “No more deals for foreign firms to control Canadian IP, data, and sovereignty.”
AI adoption in Canada is also low. According to a Deloitte report, only 26 per cent of Canadian organizations have implemented AI compared with 34 per cent globally.
“Minister Solomon’s real opportunity is to drive adoption, not just discussion,” said Lawrence Zhang, head of policy for Canada at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in Ottawa.
The Liberal platform put forward a 20-per-cent tax credit for small- and medium-sized businesses for AI adoption projects, provided they create jobs.
Figuring out how to approach AI regulation could also be on Mr. Solomon’s agenda. The Liberal government introduced the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act in 2022 as part of Bill C-27, which was widely criticized by both industry and civil-society groups before dying when Parliament was prorogued.
“It was not an easy file,” said Teresa Scassa, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. “They might just see this as something that’s going to be an ugly and embarrassing battle.”
Mr. Solomon spent much of his career in the media and covered politics in Ottawa. He co-founded Shift magazine in the 1990s, which focused on technology and culture, and became a host with CBC.
He was dismissed in 2015 after the Toronto Star alleged that he was involved in brokering art deals with people he interacted with as a journalist, including Mr. Carney, then governor of the Bank of England. Mr. Solomon said he never “intentionally” used his CBC position to promote the art business.
He quickly returned to television and secured hosting gigs with CTV. More recently, Mr. Solomon was the publisher of GZERO Media, a global-affairs news and analysis website owned by Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy.