Canada wants to build data centres that are not just physically located here, but controlled here — a distinction experts say could determine whether the country can reduce its dependence on U.S. tech giants and keep Canadian data subject to Canadian rules.
But as Ottawa reviews more than 160 data-centre proposals to support the growing demands of artificial intelligence, the promise of “sovereign” infrastructure is already running into a harder question: how much control Canada can really have over data centres that may still rely on foreign hardware, foreign customers and digital networks that do not always respect national borders.
“This is probably going to be one of the single biggest tech issues that we are going to deal with as a country,” said Ritesh Kotak, a Toronto-based lawyer and technology advisor.
Many countries, including Canada, are heavily dependent on U.S. firms for digital and cloud services — the remote computing and data storage offered by technology giants such as Amazon and Microsoft.
Recently, a Canadian launched a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which allegedly sought “vast swaths of information” through Google, about his personal life following social media posts critical of Donald Trump’s administration.
U.S. laws give the country’s intelligence and law-enforcement services broad powers to access data.
“It’s not the first time nor will it be the last time where foreign governments have requested data on Canadian citizens,” said Kotak.
That concern is now shaping Ottawa’s push to build more Canadian-based AI infrastructure.
Telus is the first successful applicant for the federal data-centre program, although negotiations with Ottawa are ongoing and no federal funding has been committed.
New data centres developed in Canada with federal government support will have a sovereignty requirement, said Evan Solomon, minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation.
In the most recent federal budget, the government pledged $925.6 million over five years to support “large-scale sovereign public AI infrastructure.”
Telecoms see momentum
On the heels of Telus’s announcement this week with the federal government to develop three new data centres, the chief executive of Bell Canada said he is excited about the momentum that is building to develop large-scale AI infrastructure in Canada.
“We’re starting to see some activity,” said Mirko Bibic. “The government is creating some ambition and some energy around making sure that we seize our AI moment as a country.”
The federal government, along with many Canadian technology leaders, are pushing the importance of data…
Read More: Canada wants sovereign AI data centres. What does that actually mean?
