Canada’s AI Strategy Is Drifting and Evan Solomon’s Explanations Aren’t Enough

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon appeared before a House of Commons committee this week with a familiar message: Canada is investing heavily in AI, the government is committed, and a refreshed national strategy is on the way. The problem? That “refreshed” strategy, originally promised this year and touted as being “almost two years ahead of schedule,” has now quietly slipped to 2026 with no real explanation.

For a technology advancing at lightning speed, a two-year drift is not a scheduling hiccup. It’s a warning sign.

Solomon maintains that the strategy is still ahead of schedule, though even members of the committee seemed puzzled by what schedule he is referring to. The lack of clarity fuels a deeper concern: that Canada’s AI policy is being shaped reactively, not proactively, even as other G7 countries surge ahead with commercialization, regulatory frameworks, and domestic compute infrastructure.

To the minister’s credit, he highlighted significant federal investments billions poured into research, data centres, and the government’s new “sovereign compute strategy.” Ottawa has also launched an AI task force and gathered a record-breaking 11,300 public submissions. These are positive steps. But consultation is not the same as implementation, and Conservatives at the committee were blunt about it: nearly nothing from Canada’s original 2017 AI strategy has materialized in practice.

The gap between investment and outcomes is becoming impossible to ignore. Billions spent, yet Canadian companies continue to sell their innovations abroad or contract with U.S. tech giants. Meanwhile, a high-profile Deloitte study cited by Solomon claiming AI has generated $100 billion for the Canadian economy offers little comfort when experts testify that the country is falling behind.

The issue isn’t whether Canada supports AI. It’s whether Canada can translate ideas into action before it loses the race entirely.

Solomon’s assurances that business decisions are up to companies may sound reasonable, but they sidestep the core problem: without a strong domestic strategy for commercialization, Canadian firms will continue to look elsewhere. Talent will follow. IP will follow. Investments will follow. And Canada will find itself applauding breakthroughs that were born here but matured abroad.

Even basic transparency remains an unresolved concern. The government allowed anonymous submissions in its national consultation a decision that prompted legitimate fears about foreign interference. Solomon says a full list of commenters will eventually be released, but only alongside the strategy itself. In 2026. Perhaps.

Canada doesn’t need more mission statements, as Conservative MP Kelly DeRidder put it. It needs an actionable roadmap: how to retain intellectual property, how to scale Canadian AI firms, how to build compute capacity that actually competes, and how to deploy AI safely and effectively across industry and government.

Right now, the country has a patchwork of initiatives and no cohesive direction.

A refreshed AI strategy arriving years late is more than a bureaucratic delay it’s a symbol of Canada’s increasingly reactive posture in one of the most consequential technological shifts of our time. If the government wants to prove it understands the urgency, it must do more than point to investments already made.

It must deliver a real plan on time, with clarity, and with ambition before Canada’s place in the global AI landscape becomes just another missed opportunity.