September 29, 2025
The Empire Club of Canada Presents
Building the Economy of the Future and The AI Nation
Chairman: Saurabh Popat, President, Board of Directors, Empire Club of Canada
Moderator
Nicole MacIntyre, Editor-in-Chief, Toronto Star
Distinguished Guest Speaker
The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Technological Innovation, Government of Canada
Head Table Guests
James Scongack, Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President, Bruce Power
Stephen Reddin, Partner, McKinsey & Company
Welcome Address by Saurabh Popat, President, Board of Directors, Empire Club of Canada
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome. I’m Saurabh Popat, the chair of the board of the Empire Club of Canada, and your host for today’s event.
To formally begin, I want to acknowledge that we are gathering on the Traditional and Treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the homelands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat Peoples. I encourage you all to learn more about the Traditional Territory on which you work and live.
Now, today’s event would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. The Empire Club of Canada is a non-profit organization, and our sponsors generously support the club, and make these events possible and complementary for our online viewers to attend. So, please join me, in thanking our Lead Sponsors, Bruce Power, and McKinsey & Company. Thank you to our VIP Reception Sponsors, Ellis Don, Amazon Web Services, Bayshore Healthcare, Bell, the Canadian Medical Association, CPA Ontario, eStructure Data Centres, Meta, OpenText, and the University of Toronto. Thank you. And to our Supporting Sponsors, KPMG, SAP, and Think Research. Thank you. We’re also very deeply appreciative of the ongoing support of our Lead Season Sponsors, Bruce Power, Hydro One, and National Bank Financial Markets. Thank you. And our VIP Reception Season Sponsors, Ellis Don, McKinsey & Company, the Ontario Road Builders Association, and Waste Connections of Canada. Thank you. And finally, thank you to our excellent Media Partner, the Toronto Star, and our AV Partner, Bespoke Audio Visual. Thank you.
Now, if you have a question for our speakers, please scan the QR code found on your program, or through the Q&A function, if you’re online. For those of you online, if you require technical assistance, use the chat feature. Thank you all, for joining us here today.
Our theme this season at the Empire Club is Building One Canada, and how timely it is to hear from the Honourable Evan Solomon, Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, who will share how Canada can become an AI and quantum nation. Minister, perhaps we should replace can with will.
AI systems might be able to control humans just as easily as an adult can bribe a three-year-old with candy. Today’s systems are not anywhere close to posing an existential risk. But in the future, genuinely, human-level AI systems could improve their own capabilities, functionally creating a new, more intelligent species. The AI Industrial Revolution has arrived. You could argue that artificial intelligence and accelerated compute is probably our best way to increase the GDP. You won’t lose your job to AI, but you lose your job to somebody who uses AI. Now, these are all statements from some of the world’s greatest minds in AI, including Canadian legends Dr. Jeffrey Hinton, Dr. Yoshua Bengio, and the CEO of the world’s most valuable company, Jensen Wong, from NVIDIA.
The early-day conversations focus on the foundations of neural networks, natural language processing, and the building of LLMs. Conversations now have leapfrogged to compute power, accelerated computing, sovereign AI, powering every use-case imaginable in AI infrastructure that will be built everywhere. We may still be in the first innings of the AI and quantum revolution, but we are in what Prime Minister Carney would call a “hinged moment,” one that is likely to be the most transformative in our recent history, and that changes everything that we know and do. AI and quantum technologies are already reshaping every sector, including healthcare, financials, energy, defence, infrastructure, education, and the way government serves Canadians.
And rapid changes in the world’s geopolitical and economic order are accelerating the value and power of AI and quantum. The decisions that we make now will determine whether Canada stands as a leader in this new era and leads through digital sovereignty, or as a consumer of AI-powered solutions and technologies that are shaped elsewhere. What makes this revolutionary transformation different is that AI and quantum-powered processes and technology is no longer just accelerating what we can build; it is accelerating how we think, how we behave, and make decisions as society. Some would say we are in an AI super-cycle.
At the ALL IN conference in Montréal, earlier this week, Minister Solomon stated that “all in” for the government and for our country means building digital sovereignty, and that this is the most pressing and democratic issue of our time. That is why today’s conversation could not be more important. For over a century, the Empire Club has hosted seminal moments, where leaders discuss bold ideas, policies, vision, and chart pathways for our country’s future. And today is another moment in our country’s history. The minister’s keynote will be followed by a fireside chat moderated by Nicole MacIntyre, editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star.
Before we begin, I want to acknowledge a partner whose leadership makes gatherings like this possible. Bruce Power is our Lead Event Sponsor today, and our Lead Season Sponsor for the year ahead. Its work at the world’s largest operating nuclear facility that shows how Canadian innovation drives national progress. It’s my pleasure to introduce James Scongack, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Bruce Power. For over more than two decades, James has helped extend the life of Bruce Power facility to 2064, including advanced large-scale commercial agreements, and guiding the company’s work in sustainability, medical isotopes, and community partnerships. He also serves as the chair of the IThe Hon. Evan SolomonO Strategic Advisory Committee, the Nuclear Isotope Council, and the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario. Please join me, in welcoming James to the stage.
Opening Remarks by James Scongack, Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President, Bruce Power
I only agree to do this if they play U2, and it didn’t play long enough. So, that’s the only time anybody ever plays U2 for me to come up to the stage. Look, firstly, thank you very much to the Empire Club, and the team that really just puts together just fantastic events. And I appreciate the introduction.
Really, before I get into introducing the minister, there’s really two, I think, key points by way of introduction that I think are important to touch on. And I reflect on the organization that I get to be a part of every day. You know, we have 5,000 workers on site, we produce a third of Ontario’s power, 40% of the world’s medical isotopes, the largest infrastructure project in Canada, thanks to our investors at OMERS—I see Young here, TC Energy. You know, I look at all the amazing things that we have going on at Bruce Power, and I have to say, I’m truly, when I go to work every day, really, really proud of what our workers do.
But when I take a step back—and my dad worked his entire career up at the Bruce Power site, I grew up in Port Elgin, Ontario, and great to come back to the company, and the one-company town to work in. And I think about where we are today as a company. And while I’m proud of everything we’re doing now, I also have the humility and respect of the fact that it was what people did 50 to 60 to 70 years ago, that set the trajectory for us as a company to be doing what we’re doing today. You know, it was 60 years ago, Canada said, “We’re going to go punch above our weight, and we’re going to lead in nuclear power.” The first commercial nuclear site was actually in Tiverton, Ontario, right in the Bruce site today. 73 years ago, we said, “We’re going to lead in medical isotopes,” the first ever cobalt-beam cancer treatment in the world in London, Ontario.
So why is that important? Well, I think what you’re going to hear from the Minister—and it’s a real honour to have the opportunity to introduce him—is we’re really at that defining point in Canada’s history now. You know, all of us have the standard of living we have today because of things people did decades ago. We don’t even know where this is going to take us, but we do know, as Canadians, we can punch above our weight, and that’s what Canada has to do. You know, we may be a great country, but we are not a large country, in terms of the size of our economy. We can’t spend the same kind of money that many of our G7 partners can do. But just like we did in nuclear and medical isotopes, we can punch above our weight when we’re focused, and we’re creative.
And so, look, that’s really my introduction of the Minister. Because if you don’t know who the hell Evan Solomon is coming to this lunch, there’s nothing I can do to help you. But I do want to tell you that I think it is a very defining moment that we have a Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Technological Innovation. Because I think we would all agree, anybody who’s ever dealt with government, anybody who’s ever dealt with a big company like Bruce Powers—so, this is not a knock on government—it’s very easy to get into silos, when you’re trying to advance things. All of our organizations struggle with it. And when you have priorities, putting strong leaders that can break down silos, get to the heart of the issue, and frankly, get things done, is how Canada is going to punch above our weight.
So I think, Minister, that’s the best way of introducing you—no pressure, by the way, the world is on your shoulders. But let’s give a warm welcome to Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Technological Innovation, Evan Solomon.
The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Technological Innovation, Government of Canada
Fantastic. James, thank you. Saurabh, fantastic. So, this is what happens on a Friday. The Empire Club. It is an absolute honour to be here. I know many of you in this room very well. I’ve worked with many of you in many different facilities, and I continue to work with many of you. So, I really appreciate seeing you. You know, you talk about a Team Canada, you start to see the same incredible people on the ice every time, and so you’re all here. Thank you.
It is a distinct honour to be here at the Empire Club today. There’s no better moment, maybe—maybe there’s no better forum in the country, to talk about urgent issues, digital sovereignty, building the economy of the future, as we just heard about. The Empire Club was founded back in 1903, which was another time of great political tremor, profound technological change, and ever since, this has really been the place where people come together in the country not only to frame the present, but to plan the future, okay? And that’s really important. In fact, actually, as I was arriving here, I, you know, you feel it, right? It’s the Empire Club. I felt, you know, the spirit of Winston Churchill, who spoke here, and Mahatma Gandhi, and Bill Gates. I almost felt them pass through me. It was like a physical sensation. Then I realized it was actually my phone buzzing, my staff was like, “You’ve got to go.” So, I guess we were involved in too many AI sins.
But let me pick up on something that Saurabh said. We’re in a crisis. We shouldn’t sugarcoat it. And we also have a remarkable opportunity in front of us. As you say, the Prime Minister refers to it as a hinge moment in history, and he’s right. But what does that mean? It means we are at this nexus point, where we’ve got a technological revolution colliding with a political realignment. I’ve called it a Gutenberg moment. Things change. And the choices that we make today will shape our economy, and our democracy, our daily lives, and our values for decades to come.
At another time, we were building railroads, and highways, and ports. They are still critical to securing our sovereignty. They always were. The same is true for our digital infrastructure. AI and quantum will be as important to securing our sovereign future as the railroad once was. But why? First, because they are going to give Canadians the power, but most importantly, the tools to build the economy of the future, and keep that secure. At the very core, in a sense, the AI revolution is the Renaissance age of the builder, the new age of the entrepreneur. And this country is a country of builders built by risk-takers. And if you look around this room—and you’ll meet each other, that’s the very purpose of the Empire Club—you’ll see founders, and researchers, and CEOs, and investors, and teachers, and students, members of the public, who care about the future of this country, all trying to build and master the next big thing to help this country.
Innovators everywhere now have the power in their hands to turn their ideas into business, like never before. And I started my career as an entrepreneur. A few weeks ago, I was in Edmonton, and I met a woman named Martha White. She’s a professor, a machine learning professor at the University of Alberta. And she’s using her research, and AI, to make water treatment dramatically more effective, to use fewer chemicals, and catching contamination much more quickly in real time. And she told me this, five years ago, Martha would never have had the tools—and this is even more important, she would never have even thought that she could become a CEO and start a company. I mean, we all know, if you start a company, like I have, it’s nuts, it’s hard, it’s risk-taking. You got to, you’re the janitor, you’re the CEO, right? You have to hire your friends, and fire your friends. Being an entrepreneur is hard, but she’s done it. What’s she doing right now? She’s still teaching future engineers at the University of Alberta. She’s just raised $7 million for her company. She’s doing another round right now. And she’s loving being a CEO. From the lab coat to the C-suite, from the classroom to the boardroom, the journey has never been shorter. And that’s the power of AI. It’s the kind of transformation that when we were in all-In in Montréal yesterday, and the day before, there are 2,500 AI companies in Canada today, and they are new ones born every single day.
I was with a company in Montréal yesterday called Reveal. Reveal’s cool. They have a tool—they were, by the way, invited us to a live brain surgery yesterday, okay? They have a tool called Century that allows a brain surgeon, as they’re slicing off the tumor in the brain—and it’s delicate—to detect in real time with a simple probe, using light, if all the cancer has been caught. Because they need to reduce, with this tool, second surgeries by 30 to 40%. And they can do it, because the AI can interpret what it’s seeing so quickly, and says you have to take more. Remarkable. It’s just starting, every day we see it. Our tech industry currently employs 800,000 people, it’s the fastest-growing sector in the country. Highly-skilled, good paying jobs, and more to come. The question for all of us, how do we seize it? How do we seize the moment? So, that’s what I wanna talk to you about today.
The term, the mission, the answer for this government, I think for this country, is build digital sovereignty. Building digital sovereignty. That’s our mission. What does that mean? It means we need a meaningful Canadian sovereign backbone. That means the people, the power, and the compute to build the economy of the future. A digital economy that is free from coercion, acts under Canadian law, that someone else cannot turn off. A Canadian capacity that shows our strength to global partners, and welcomes global partners. With our own assets, we can engage with the world, bring in investment, go out to the world with strength, preserving our sovereignty, and partnering with the world as equal. But the key thing, just as in 1903, when the world recognized the railroad, and then soon oil, now data is king. Whoever controls it, whoever uses it, whoever governs it, will determine our prosperity, and our security, and our values. So, we need to build a digital foundation that reflects, and projects, and protects our core values, keeping our critical data under Canadian law, protecting citizens, privacy, consumers, protecting kids. I have two kids. We’re parents. We know what that means. Backing Canadian builders, so their ideas become thriving companies. We need to make sure that the headquarters, the jobs, and the IP stay here at home. Canada as the AI head office, not as the branch plant nation, okay? It’s important.
And the principle is that AI is here to serve Canadians for the better. Quantum is here to serve Canadians for the better. That means the farmer in Saskatchewan, boosting yields with smart farms powered by Canadian-built technology like Raven and Regina. That means the doctor working in North Bay, where my wife grew up—just always shout out North Bay, because how great—and Vic Fedeli will give me points for that. That’s right, Vic. Detecting osteoporosis early through routine x-rays, enhanced by AI from 16 Bit, right here in Toronto. The offshore worker in Newfoundland and Labrador are keeping platforms safer and cleaner with Digital Twins from Enaimco, in St. John’s. The miner in northern Québec, supplying the world with responsibly-sourced critical minerals, another competitive asset. Canada has that the world wants, tracked end-to-end by AI from Optel in Québec City, and working with great companies like Bruce Power, because we have the clean energy. I mean, we have assets.
So, let me be clear, though—and this is just as vital as digital sovereignty—sovereignty does not mean solitude. We will continue to partner with, we will continue to trade with other nations internationally, especially the United States, and trusted allies. You saw the prime minister. We are negotiating with the US. We just did a trade deal with Indonesia. That is, by the way, so significant. That is why the prime minister’s in the UK today, to continue to build trading relationships. We will be sovereign, but not exist in solitude. We are Canada. Trusted, and the world wants to do business with us. We have more free trade relationships than any country in the world. Global companies and hyperscalers, of course, they’re vital parts of the ecosystem. They always will be. But our goal here—and we gotta recognize this moment—that we have to own the tools and the rules that matter most, at this critical moment. So, you can kind of think about this as building our digital insurance policy. And once we do, then we will continue to engage with the world’s best innovators, the best technologies, with the confidence that our core remains secure, on terms that reflect our values, and in ways that make Canada the place the world wants to do business with, and build with.
Look, we start from a great competitive advantage. Not just our talent, and our education, and our resources, but in terms of AI, we’re the place. Modern AI took shape in this country. Yoshua Bengio, who I was with the other day, had another great conversation. Rich Sutton in Edmonton, fantastic, was just with Rich out in Edmonton. And Jeffrey Hinton, here in Toronto. The three godfathers of AI. Incredible. We know them, we speak to them all the time, we are so lucky to have them here. We launched the first AI national strategy in 2017. We built the three world-class institutions. Vector, right here—put up your hand, there’s probably vectors in the room. Mila is here—there’s Vector right there, nice going. AMII, in Edmonton. Talent, research, credibility, incredible places. I mean, these are world-class.
But leadership ain’t a birthright. It has to be earned again and again, like everyone in this room knows. It’s a fight, it’s a fight. Competition is fierce. That’s why it’s so urgent for us to get on with the plan to build our digital sovereignty. We’ve got 150,000 Canadians working in the AI sector alone. It’s growing, with a reputation for trust and responsibility, and frontier knowledge, that gives us global credibility. But we’ve got 40 million Canadians whose jobs, health, and futures will be shaped by it. And AI and quantum must serve all of them. Core value. When we’re building a plan, principles, strategies, tactics. What are your principles? Stick with your values. Technology serves us.
Technology moves at the speed of innovation, adoption moves at the speed of trust. If we want people to use it, they gotta trust it. And our mission is to close that gap. If we get it right, we’re not just gonna build the next app, the next company, the next Shopify, the next OpenText, the next AIDA; we’re building those already. We’re gonna build a stronger Canada, and we’ll secure our digital sovereignty. So how are we going to do it? This is kind of chapter two, for our ministry. Introducing to you today, and this week, how we’re—the outlines of our plan.
One, principle, trust and security, trust and security. We’re going to modernize Canada’s privacy and data laws, that are 25 years old. They’ve tried it before, in Parliament; we’re gonna do it. We will include protections for consumers, and for children. We’re gonna set clear standards for the use of data. This is not a lock box, it’s not like building Fort Knox. Data ain’t gold. You don’t put it in a box, surround it with soldiers. Data moves, so this is really important. You gotta set clear standards for use of data, while giving innovators clarity. Trust means safety. Because Canadians are not gonna embrace AI, if they fear deepfakes, and scams, and job loss. So, we have to keep people secure, so AI is an opportunity, not a threat. And when Canadians trust AI, they’ll use it to farm, to heal, to teach, to create. So, first is trust and security.
Second pillar—and that’ll come later this year—two, capital customers and compute. For the past four or five months, I’ve been across the country, our team has been across the country, we’ve been speaking with entrepreneurs, and founders, and industry leaders, and university professors, and stakeholders—I really don’t love that term, stakeholders, but you know, people who give a, I don’t know what the Empire Club rules are, but I’m pretty sure Mahatma Gandhi didn’t use that word—they told us clearly: you need three things to thrive. You need capital, you need customers, and you need compute.
So on the capital side, we will be rolling out new tools, so Canadian innovators can scale right here at home, not just abroad, by helping startups attract patient capital, and keep their headquarters in Canada, so they can turn their early breakthroughs into global companies. I will say, in this room, there are some of our leading VC funds here. We don’t celebrate that. We have some remarkable venture capital, angel investors, they’re working hard, we need more, but they are doing incredible work. Some of the great companies that we have in Canada are here because of our—you can raise your hand, which is fantastic—some amazing capital, and we need more of that. And we need to, as a government, incentivize that, and we will.
You need customers. We’ll lead by example, through government procurement, creating markets for Canadian-made AI solutions. There are some stats that say government procurement accounts for between 15 and 16.5% of the economy—could be me, but it’s not. But government has to not just work on the supply side, but the demand side. That’s why you saw us sign an MOU with Cohere recently, one of our Canadian champions, and there’ll be more. But they also have to do it through our defense industrial strategy, which the prime minister has talked about, as we meet our 2%, our dual use. We’ll unlock dual-use opportunities for your technologies, and your protection. That’s really vital, and that’s really important. And now, we have a mechanism to do it.
Third, compute. You need the compute. Sovereign compute and sovereign cloud is not a slogan. It means Canadian data, sensitive data, stays under Canadian law, safeguarded in Canadian-controlled data centres. Okay, that’s important, and we’ll talk lots more about that. Really important. And I also wanna say something about quantum. Because this applies to Canada’s other leading frontier in tech, quantum, and some of our great quantum companies are here right now—Xanadu’s here, Quantum compute—which, remember, people are just getting used to AI; they’re like, wait, what, quantum? What’s a qubit? It’s coming. And we have to, we’ve been ahead. Quantum compute, and sensing, and photonics, has the promise to be transformational, and it has massive implications, not just economic ones, but on cybersecurity. Canada has been the world leader, and some of our leading, some of the leading global quantum companies are here, Xanadu in Toronto, Photonic in Vancouver, I think Nord Quantique is also here, somewhere, which is great to see. The world wants these companies, and they want what they know. But we need to keep them here in Canada, so they can engage in the world. Next month, we’ll be launching a major new program to do just that, to double down on our quantum strategy, to make sure we maintain our quantum leaders, and our industry, and our talent—and I’m gonna say it again, our IP right here in Canada. We need to double-down on the frontier where we’re leading, but we gotta keep it there.
Three, talent. Canada’s competitive edge has always been our people, our great institutions of education, our universities. That’s why we keep attracting talent, but we gotta do it better. There’s real opportunities to do that, and keep our best minds here. Okay? That’s why we’re launching that quantum initiative. Because we’re trying to make sure the world knows this is the place to be. The goal here is not to be the farm team for someone else’s economy, okay? Canada’s no one’s farm team. But we need to listen, to get this right. [Applause]
So, how do we listen to get it right? Today, we’re kicking off our national sprint. Today, I’m gonna announce—I am announcing, there’s no more going to. The past is over, the present is here. Today, I’m announcing the full membership of Canada’s AI task force. 26 extraordinary minds from across the country, the country’s leading researchers, thinkers, and builders—you’ll see some of these names here, for the first time—will sprint for 30 days on eight national priorities. It’s a 30-day sprint. In November, they will each send back their bold practical ideas, and by year-end, we will table a refreshed national AI strategy almost two years ahead of schedule, moving from principles to projects, and from ideas to impact.
This is not the only way we’re getting feedback. We have our advisory panels, we have our safety institute, and beginning on October 1st, Canadians themselves will be able to share their perspectives online, and we’ll be gathering feedback from everyone. Many of you in the room have said to me, “Can I be on the task force?” The inbound is fantastic. What a good problem to have, when people want to step up to serve their country. So, let me first say thank you. It is remarkable. It is hard to get, to winnow this down, and move quickly. But these groups will be talking to many of you. Fresh thinking doesn’t just come from the 26; it will come from many of you who are working on extraordinary things. It will come from citizens. When I door-knock in my riding, citizens ask about it, citizens matter as much as anyone, more. The individual matters. Businesses, innovators, individuals, families, kids. We gotta listen.
And it comes from knowing that we have the talent, and the companies right here in Canada, and that’s important. Part of this strategy is kind of basic. We need to tell ourselves the stories of what we’re doing, and championing them. We don’t even know what we’ve got here, sometimes. Canadians need to do a better job telling our own story, and being proud of the fact that we’re global leaders. I was with Aidan Gomez, who I talked to a lot for the CEO of Cohere, Canada’s pioneering LLM company—and there are only four countries in the world that have big LLMs like this: the United States, China, France has one, and Canada. That’s it. It’s an incredible company. Two years ago, 99% of their business was outside of Canada. Then Aidan met Dave McKay, and Dave McKay, the CEO of RBC, took a bet and said, “I’ll use your North system,” and now RBC uses it.
I had dinner with Mirko Bibic at Bell, and they have an incredible project Bell Fabric. Our telcos tell us they’re stepping up. And he said, “Is there a Canadian company we should use?” I said, “Have you met Cohere?” “No.” Called them that, I think, that afternoon. Seven weeks ago, you started the deal? Seven weeks later, they made a deal. They go live October 6th. This is gonna be a quarter of a billion dollar deal? Pretty close. If it’s not, it will be now. The point is, it was a connection. Oh, we have a world-class system, we can use it. Our champions are working together. It is phenomenal.
Yesterday, I was with Hypertec—maybe this room knows. How many people here have heard of Hypertec, Hypertec? Right. A couple hands. They’ve been around for 40 years, in Montréal, family-run business, started by immigrants, came to Canada, started a company, incredible company. Yesterday, in Montréal, they announced they’re investing $250 million in a new data centre. They’re investing three to five billion dollars around the world. All headquartered here. Incredible family-run business. There’s a lot of brothers in that family, by the way. They’re amazing.
The point is, we need to bet on each other, we need to buy from each other, and we need to celebrate each other, now more than ever. When the Prime Minister talks about knocking down provincial trade barriers, we’ve gotta knock down our own internal barriers, and kind of stand up for ourselves. 20 years ago, Canadians set an audacious goal, I remember it. Remember, Own the Podium? Remember that movement? We’d had a couple of Olympics where we never won gold. Canadians were tired of that. Like, winter Olympics, and we don’t win gold? Not cool. So, they set an ambition to own the podium by the 2010 Olympics. Who does not remember Sidney Crosby’s golden goal on February 28th, when he scored that golden goal? How many medals did we win that year, when we decided to lean into it? 14 gold medals. Why? We stood up. Folks, this is our digital own the podium moment. This is it. It is one of our major national projects, as the Prime Minister has announced. There’s a lot of excitement, and frankly, and we’ll talk about it, there’s a lot of anxiety. We get it. There are legitimate questions about security, and jobs, and just keeping up. But we can’t back away.
When I was invited to speak here, I went back, and I reread Bill Gates’ speech, when he was here. Bill Gates was here, I think in 1996, 29 years ago. He was speaking at the Empire Club. By the way, at the time, I was hosting a television show called Future World, and I was the co-owner of a tech company, a magazine called Shift Magazine, covering the birth of the internet. And I got to interview Bill Gates quite a bit. It was quite fascinating. So, he comes here, and he was talking about this new thing called the internet. And there was that same optimism, and that same anxiety. And he had this, I think the title of it was “A Revolution in Communications. I’m gonna read you a passage. Tell me, this is 28, 29 years ago. “I venture to say, he said, everyone in this room within five years will have an electronic mail address, and the ability to get messages from business colleagues and friends across the internet.” People are like, I don’t think so.
So, he demonstrated it at the Empire Club. He had a staff come, and he uploaded a homepage, because he thought you had to show people to talk about it, to get over the anxiety. And then he said this, quote, “The future I’m describing is not without its challenges. People will worry not only about the access issue, but about privacy. They’ll worry about being left behind. People will worry about rural areas that are not getting connected up. They’ll worry about the kind of material that might be available through this medium.” And then he said, “It’s great to have people focus on those issues. We need that. But I see this tool as something that will be used in education, that will allow kids to pursue their curiosity, and invent new things, that will allow businesses to be more efficient.”
Later that year, I interviewed Bill Gates in Waterloo, and he was speaking, in February, to a group of engineers. And he was the richest man in the world. And I said, “Bill, what the hell are you doing in February, in Waterloo? You have options, sir.” I don’t think he got the Canadian reference. And he said, “I’ll tell you why I’m here.” He said, “I, in Redmond, Washington, we have the largest collection of millionaires, and the smartest people in the world working with me. And I miss search.” Miss Google. Remember, he was trying to buy Yahoo for $45 billion? And then he said, “And I’m missing things all the time. And I realize that even I can’t keep up. So, I realized my best strategy is to come to places like Waterloo. Because one of these engineers is either going to start a company, and disrupt my company, work for my competitor, and disrupt my company, or work for me.” So, he was in the talent recruitment business.
Folks, what is the takeaway? Bill Gates was right about trust security and adoption curves, and they determine how fast people will embrace change. It was this true 28 years ago, it’s true again in our second wave of this technological revolution. It’s true about talent. It’s true about talent. But we cannot let people poach our talent. They know the best is here. We know the best is here. We gotta keep them here. And we’ve gotta demonstrate what AI delivers. It is not the technology we should talk about; it’s the tool. What it delivers, better health care, better agriculture, better government. It is a tool to serve people first. And we need to recognize that, and keep it all here.
So, let me just close, before our speech, our conversation. This is the second great technological revolution in the last quarter-century. It is incumbent on everyone in this room, all of us, and our government, to make it ours. This needs to be Canadian. That’s the key. My simple ask to all of you, to businesses and to investors, root your headquarters here. Build and scale in Canada, and buy Canadian. Participate with this government, as a partner. We need you. Share your ideas with the task force, starting on October 1st, and help shape the future. To the ecosystem, mentor, hire, and partner, and turn your principles into projects. It’s the golden age of the entrepreneur. If you’re a student, start a company. It’s great. This is our moment to build our digital sovereignty, to build our compute, to build trust, to build Canadian companies that will scale into global leaders. We must seize it, we need to seize it, and we will seize it together. Thank you.
Saurabh Popat
Wow, that’s a hard act to follow. Incredible. Thank you, Minister, for those phenomenal comments, and sharing your plan ahead. We’ll now continue the conversation with a fireside chat, and a chance for you in the audience to ask your questions. To guide this discussion, we are joined today by someone who has spent her career bringing clarity and understanding the big issues shaping our country. Nicole MacIntyre is the editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. She returned to the Star in 2021, as a managing editor. Nicole has also served as deputy national editor and Toronto editor at the Globe and Mail, and earlier in her career, built her reputation as a reporter covering crime and municipal politics in some of Ontario’s largest newsrooms. Please join me, in welcoming Nicole to the stage, to moderate our fireside chat.
Nicole MacIntyre, Editor-in-Chief, Toronto Star
Thank you. Okay. Talk about pressure to follow. Try being the first journalist who has to ask you about the task force that you threw up there.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Yes, good.
Nicole MacIntyre
First time seeing it for me, and for anyone here. That’s a heck of a timeline that you’ve put on that.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Yes.
Nicole MacIntyre
Journalists love a deadline. Why so tight, though, 30 days?
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Two things happen in government too often, pilotitis and committeeitis. Let’s be honest. We’re a new government, we gotta talk frankly. We can’t talk ourselves to death on this. We hear you, okay? We have real mechanisms already in place, that we get a lot of feedback from. Digital Research DRAC and Ottawa and Vancouver I was with, the Canadian AI Safety Institute. We have a series of advisory boards. We meet with people almost all the time. But one, we need to do something more public. Two, the race is happening. And we have to recognize that there’s a different way to do business here, and so we have to, as governments, do business differently. And one way is to follow something in the software world that is not usually used in the government world, which is this. We usually wait, we consult with everybody for a long time, and then we wait to get something perfect, and it takes a long time, and then we launch, and then by that time, it can be out of date.
And in the software world, you iterate. You start to do something, and you continuously take feedback, and you make a system that can change, but is functional, and it’s functional in real time. Part of that’s like this: here’s 30 days of first draft. We really need to hear that. This strategy is not gonna be chipped in stone. This is a first draft. This is gonna take a long time to build digital sovereignty. This is not something that we’re gonna say, this is it. This is the first step. What are the principles, what are the needs? Let’s get moving. Are we gonna iterate along the way, change, get feedback? There’ll be new threats, new opportunities, new issues. Absolutely, we’re gonna have to keep iterating. I’m working closely on legislation, not just on privacy and data, but with the Justice Minister, who’s talked about changes to the Criminal Code, when it comes to other aspects of children, the Heritage Minister, who’s working very closely with stakeholder groups on some issues like copyright. So, look. We gotta move. But we can’t let the perfect get in the way of the good.
By the way, can I just shout out to my colleague, Karim Bardeesy, who’s—and this shows a bit of that—he’s the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, also a great member of parliament here in Toronto, founder of the DAIS and many other great things in tech, and he’s here, working with the Minister of Industry. We gotta move iteratively, but we gotta move quickly.
Nicole MacIntyre
So, as part of that, you said there’s gonna be public consultation.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Yes.
Nicole MacIntyre
I wonder, in that tight of a timeline, how meaningful that public consultation can be.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
The public consultation, there are two things I would say about that—well, we’ll see how meaningful it is. Three things that are interesting on this. One, the appetite for inclusion have been incredible. I mean, when we said we’re gonna do a task force, I don’t joke, it was everybody wants to be on the task force. This is a great problem to have. More people want more say in our country’s future. Fantastic. And we wanna invite that, and Canadians need that. So, that’s a good thing. How do we process that, and make it meaningful? That’s part of our challenge. But I don’t think people wanna hear, also, this will be a five-month consultation period, and what happens? Hands up, if you can name a consultation that you were a part of in the last five years, that people actually reference. It is a 30-day sprint, but it’s not the end of the cycle.
And I will just say, because I was thinking about this with you, I call this a Gutenberg moment, a bit. So, in that, the first modern-day printing press was the Aldine printing press in Venice, and its colophon, its logo, was the dolphin and the anchor—and you still see it, the dolphin over the anchor. And they were so paranoid that books would move so quickly that they said that cathedrals of memory will collapse. By the way, they had massive copyright issues, because people were printing books that didn’t have copyright laws. So, it was like mayhem. So, the Aldine printing press starts, and their motto was, and your Latin—I don’t know, I had studied Latin as a kid—was festina lente, which means “make haste slowly.” So, it’s kind of our motto. We gotta make haste, but we gotta do it slowly. So, I think you’re asking the exact right question, which is, we see you’re making haste on a 30-day sprint, how are you making haste slowly? We’re trying to have checks and balances, and make sure that we’re A, transparent about it, showing the list, and it’s not the end of the process.
Nicole MacIntyre
So, as you mentioned, that task force is pretty important, a lot of people wanted on it. Having balance on that task force, I have to imagine, was pretty key. How did you choose? What is the balance there?
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Well, there is—and you can, it’s not for me, necessarily, to judge the balance—we think it’s balanced in all sorts of ways, regionally, from different representations across the country, it’s not sort of more heavily weighted, we hope to one industry, or one stakeholder group. We try to make sure we have educators, we have—you know, look, this is a, our country is a mosaic. So, we wanna make sure that we get voices from the regions, from different people’s religious and cultural backgrounds, so we genuinely have put that in. But again, I will tell you this: do I expect people to read this list, and to drop a ball of confetti on my head? No. Because it ain’t gonna be perfect. But as I say, that’s not the goal. The goal is to be effective, and to be open to change. So, to leave, to not chip this thing in stone with 26 people, but to try to be open, transparent, set the first steps in this journey towards digital sovereignty, and keep listening, and I’ve said this many times—and I’m a new politician, as you know—governments can go deaf over time. We’re a new government, we gotta open our ears. This is part of that process.
Nicole MacIntyre
I wanna give you a chance to address some of the criticism you’ve faced in recent weeks. Pretty strong headline about that your job isn’t to be the cheerleader for the industry, that came from the head of the Citizen’s Lab at the Munk School. And he really raised concerns that he feels like you’re being too much of a cheerleader, and that it’s the industry that’s captured you. Thoughts on that criticism?
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Ron does great work, by the way, at the Citizen’s Lab. So, shout out to what they’ve done for incredible work for years. It’s great that we have a democracy that people voice. So, I welcome it. I have no problem with it. And I think they do great work. You know, in terms of being captured, I would say this: we have positioned ourselves—and this gets to a larger question about what’s Canada’s view on this. When I first, when the Prime Minister first appointed me to this job, he reflected that we need a Minister of AI and Digital Innovation, because it’s no longer a subset of industry, it’s a driver. And that the balance, on one side, you’ve got the US and China, who regard all regulation as a constraint on national security and innovation, and on the other side, you had the Europeans, who had passed some regulations on this. And we had tried in this country, with Bill C-27, which was the renewal of our privacy legislations—PIPEDA, if you wanna get really acronym-like—but it had on the third element a bolt-on on a regulation on AI, and there was a lot of pushback on it. And in Europe, when you talk to Europeans, they now know, they’re concerned that they’ve constrained their own innovation.
So, the question was, how do we thread the needle? And the first thing I said was, we cannot over-index on regulation. But that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna do in regulation. And I’ve indicated that this, we will be bringing forth legislation on privacy and data that will also try to address deepfakes, sensitive information, data flows. It’s really, really important. That’s a part of it. It’s not gonna be everything. But we’ve gotta first make sure we got that insurance policy. You know, there is no perfect regulation. There are some really good things out there, and we know those, but we will be moving on those very quickly in this legislative cycle.
So, to that point, look, we’re in an economic moment that we need to make sure that Canada is in the lead, and captures the best of this technology. But as you heard from this, in this speech, and at what I’ve said continuously, trust and regulation are absolutely important. We talked to that. Again, Yoshua Bengio, so folks know, he’s the lead on our Canadian AI Safety Institute. He has something called Law Zero. I had a long meeting with Yoshua. Again, we’re very, obviously, we fund a lot of that. We’re very supportive of what Yoshua is doing. And there’s lots of ways—and I talked to Jeff Hinton about it a lot—there’s lots of ways to regulate things, and protect citizens’ data and privacy, without suffocating the possibilities of opportunity here.
Nicole MacIntyre
I think, for the public, part of the concern, there’s polling out there that Canadians are actually pretty conservative when it comes to AI, and they have a lot of fears, I think significantly more than Americans. I think part of the reason that that might be is that the godfathers of AI here have raised some pretty big concerns. I’m curious, I agree with you, the point, you have to have trust, if you’re gonna get change. How are you gonna build up that trust in the public?
The Hon. Evan Solomon
I think, it’s a great question. And it’s, as I said, it was step one of our digital sovereignty plan is trust and security. You not only, you know, security does not just have to be done, it has to perceive to be done by justice, we understand that. So one, you need better rules of the road, that’s the legislative piece, number one. Two, you have to understand what this technology is. You know, it’s new, and it’s moving really quick. I mean, the chat GPT moment that we all remember, I mean, that was like a technology revolution that happened like a light switch. It was like, oh, what’s this? Couple of people are doing this new frontier stuff, and then all of a sudden, boom, the world changed. And people are still kind of awakening to that. That’s why, so important to see what it does.
If we talk about AI as some thing, with billions of dollars, people will not trust it. What does it do? Is it a tool? That’s why going to Reveal, and seeing, oh, AI is a tool in healthcare that can stop a second surgery, or, you know, there’s a company here in Toronto, that Mike Murchison runs AIDA. They, you know, people spend like seven days of their life on hold. Agentic AI can transform that. They’re a company in downtown Toronto, they’re worth more than a billion dollars now. People haven’t heard of them. Hands up, if you wanna spend more time on hold, right? People are like, oh, okay.
You know, I just, I remember when my father would say, I don’t wanna put my credit card on the internet. Who would do that? I don’t wanna, you know, use that bank machine. Like, I need, you know, I mean, okay. Now, when you realize, well, you know, you’re probably gonna put it on to order food. Really? Yes. You’re probably gonna put it on everywhere, for travel, everything, to your plane tickets, everything. And I remember, I mean, I remember my father—I mean, he’s passed away, sadly—but I remember when he said to me, now I’m gonna get emotional, this is so saccharine, but I’m at that age, he used to call me Aveo. He’s like, “Aveo, this is not just the first time I’ve ever used a keyboard. This is not the first time I’ve ever typed an email, it’s the first time I’ve ever used a keyboard.” It was like, but then he adjusted and adjusted and adjusted. There’s going to be expected anxiety. The way around it is to see the benefits, to see the tools.
The good news is, it’s getting easier and easier to use. It’s easier to program. You’ve got kids, kids are using this stuff. And we are, the tools are getting easier to program. And I would just urge us all, I know we’re gathering here, but if you go to places like ALL IN, if you’re here in Toronto and you wanna see Tech Week, and you go down to see Tech Week, you’ll see hundreds and hundreds of companies that will blow your mind. And they’re doing real things to help people. And I think that’s the ladder of trust.
Nicole MacIntyre
I am a mom, I have two teenage boys. And the oldest one wants to be an AI engineer. AI is big in our household. Our fights about subscriptions are not about Netflix, it’s about you can’t have Claude, and ChatGPT, and Gemini; we have to pick one. And so that’s been big in our house. But he’s very excited that I was coming here today to do this—it’s a PA day, and he asked if he could come. I said no, but I said we’d show it to him later. I know, I know, I know.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Tough household.
Nicole MacIntyre
But also, he would not have allowed me to talk about him if he was here, so that was the other trade-off. But I find it interesting when I talk to him about it, because he, it’s amazing the things that he’s doing. And I feel like I have learned so much about AI, through him. But he talks about being scared that he’s hitting it in the wrong moment. That his friends are struggling to get summer jobs, that he wants to be a coder. That’s changing so fast, those entry-level jobs. And he said to me the other day, “I feel like I was born at the wrong period. That I have these big dreams, but I’m worried that those jobs that I need to move up are gonna be gone.” I feel like that’s a real fear.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Yeah, it is. First of all, it’s not a new fear. I mean, I was just, Bill Gates, at the time of 29 years ago, he was talking about the same thing. So, let’s look at history. History is not, the past is not necessarily prologue, but you know, it’s worth looking at. There has been no technological revolution that has not ended up creating more jobs, right? In the ‘50s, they thought, well, we’re gonna have electricity, and all those pictures. No more clean houses, where everyone was sitting around like in an episode of “Mad Men,” drinking, you know, martinis, and really nice houses. We’ve raised two kids that—we didn’t have any of, though. I don’t remember having martinis with my wife, while the robots did everything. It didn’t happen. So, technology has spawned a huge number of jobs. When we started “Shift Magazine” 25 years ago, and the internet was happening, people could not predict—if I’d said 10 years ago, to this crowd, the most valuable company in the world would be, in Canada, would be Shopify, the most valuable company in the world would be a company called NVIDIA. And you’d be saying, you know, they’re missing a vowel, right? All the most valuable companies in the world now, 10 years ago, you could not predict them. They didn’t exist like this, at this level.
So, one thing we can say is, when we look at economic transformation, we’re really good at saying what jobs will be, you know, disrupted. We’re really bad at predicting what jobs will be created, right? And that’s why things that are built. That’s why, when we talk about data centres, this is a really powerful thing—and I’ll come back to your kids, because my kids have similar questions, so it’s a fair question. You know, people say, well, why are we building data centres? What’s the point of them? Or AI factories is another term you hear. Because the purpose of data centres is that people say, well, there are only gonna be 20 jobs, but it’s not the data centre itself. It’s like when we built the Trans-Canada Highway. Once you built the road, do you say, how many jobs will the road take? It’s the road maintenance. It’s what builds up around the road, what the road opens up. And the data centres are producing tokens, bits of information, and there’s a speciation. That when people say, I need compute, like when universities tell us, we need compute, when companies say, we need access to compute, we have a $300 million compute fund for small and medium-sized enterprises. We opened it in July—speaking of short—we gave a 30-day window: oversubscribed within seconds. Like, the appetite for compute, because they wanna build things. So, we have to understand that we’re building a big ecosystem here, we’re not just talking about one thing.
So where will the jobs be? One, this is the value of an education system and critical thinking, right? Critical thinking matters. Technologies, when people were afraid of the internet—and I’ll say, when we were raising money for Shift, we were in our 20’s, and we were taken to a boardroom to raise money. And there was a bunch of guys with, they looked really old to me—they’re probably younger than me now—but they had like cufflinks that were worth more than our, you know, annual revenue, and there was like 20 of them. And we were talking about the internet. We said, “You should invest in us, in this internet thing.” And one guy, who went on to become the CEO of a foreign bank, I remember him, and he was bald, and he sat back in a British voice, he said, “If I am to understand you lads correctly, this internet thing will be something of a religion.” And we kind of looked at each other, Andrew Hines, my business partner, and I, and we kind of said, “Yeah. You’re kind of right. It’s a bit like that. It will be, everyone will have something to say about it.” And they laughed at us. One CEO there invested in us; the rest of them said, “There’s nothing here.” They could not see tomorrow. And then tomorrow arrived, and I can tell you, that particular company, in that form, does not exist, okay?
So, your kids and my kids, they’re gonna be, they have tools to invent a future that you and I never had. That’s why I say this is also the age of the entrepreneur. But it also means it’s incumbent on our governments, municipal, provincial, and federal, to invest in a skilled workforce, critical thinking, and education, and why we need to, you know, have real robust democratic debates about our values, and sitting here with you—and we should, politicians and business leaders should get grilled by the public, who wanna know these questions, and we should be open to that. Otherwise, there will be that anxiety.
Nicole MacIntyre
I’m curious if you feel like helping us go through that moment is part of your mandate, as well, is that it’s undeniable, there will be jobs created, but there’s also going to be lots of jobs that will be eliminated because of this. We know that wealth disparities, inequality, lead to societal problems that we’re living, and I think that’s only gonna get worse. Do you think that part of your mandate is to help us navigate that?
The Hon. Evan Solomon
A hundred percent. I think it’s not my mandate, I think it’s everybody’s mandate, but for sure, the federal government. First of all, there’s lots of things displacing jobs, okay? I think we also have to be really careful not to just say, you know, people have said to me, “What about AI and jobs?” I will just say this: Canada lags behind the OECD countries between about 9 and 10% on adoption of AI. So, when people say, oh, I’m really worried about it’s replacing—we’re not even using it, competitively. So, you know, first order problem, right? We need to actually see what these tools can do to stay competitive, and to drive productivity, which is important. Secondly, we gotta make sure people have those jobs. But we have to be very open about the fact that where the jobs are going are gonna be people who are using this technology. But it is a tool, okay? It is a—and the depth of understanding of what this tool can do will take a long time. Like, it took us, when Bill Gates came here in the 90’s, he was saying to people, information is about to go from a scarce commodity, where you’re in the Star, I was a journalist, you know, we valued information as a scarce commodity, and scarcity creates value. And he said, once information becomes abundant, and abundance changes value, you’re gonna see a whole bunch of things shift, and share. And it took 20 years to absorb that. And the economy’s absorbing that. So, that was when information went from scarce to abundant.
Now, we’ve got intelligence going from scarce to abundant. That’s another, it’s gonna take us a long time. And there are some people who are gonna invent new things. There’ll be another Shopify, or another, you know, OpenText. I mean, when Tom Jenkins in Waterloo started OpenText 25 years ago—by the way, 22,000 people he employs, they employ, right? How many? 20, 35, yeah, 35 years ago, people didn’t know. Why would you buy digital archives, why would you do that? Smart. And you know, absolute pioneering. So, I just think what we should do is be candid about it. But I don’t think it should stop us from trying to figure this out. Like, this is a Rubik’s Cube, you gotta put it in your hand, and twirl it around a bit.
Nicole MacIntyre
We’re almost out of time….
The Hon. Evan Solomon
That’s an old, old, old reference there, you know. I’m so sorry, I was like—a few people were like, what is he talking about?
QUESTION & ANSWER
Nicole MacIntyre
We have a student question—and we’re pretty much out of time, so I think I’m gonna give her the second-to-last question. So, if we wanna cue up the question from the student.
VIDEO
Hi, Minister Solomon, my name is Rachelle Vaughan, and I currently attend Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business. AI is inevitably going to transform our economy and our daily lives. My question to you is, how is Canada’s strategy going to ensure that AI is developed and deployed not only to drive growth, but also to be ethical, inclusive, and accessible to all Canadians?
END OF VIDEO
The Hon. Evan Solomon
First of all, great question. Probably studying the right thing. So, we’ll probably be working for you soon. Those are the values that we’re talking about. In the legislation that we’re talking about, in terms of privacy and data, that’s one element of it, to ensure that we have transparency, and we have the—there are real questions about using AI, for example, that might not be transparent, that may make decisions about immigration, or job applications, and they wanna make sure that there’s no biases. So, talking about that. There are others about compensation, principles of compensation for creators, for training models. There’s been lots of legal action on that, both in Canada, and recently, in the United States. So, part of that, just to answer the question quickly: one, you’ll see part of that in our legislation, and the task force will talk a lot about that as well. Two, you’ll see that in some legislation, as well, in heritage. But those are core Canadian values that we have to bake in to our digital sovereignty plan.
Nicole MacIntyre
Okay, we’re over time. So, I’m gonna make the last one very quick. A year from now…
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Yes.
Nicole MacIntyre
…what would you like the headline to be on the Star homepage about what you’ve achieved in a year? Headline. So, it’s gotta be tight.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Liberal majority. No, I… [Laughter and applause]
Nicole MacIntyre
I mean, we can leave it there, if you want.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
No, I would say, economic growth. First, we wanna see economic growth. Not just from this sector.
Nicole MacIntyre
Headline.
The Hon. Evan Solomon
Headline: Canada’s Economy Grows.
Nicole MacIntyre
Okay. Thank you so much. I’m gonna bring Saurabh up.
Saurabh Popat
Thank you. That was fantastic. You can take your seats. Thank you. Thank you, Minister Solomon, and Nicole. Thank you, thank you both. That was an excellent session. Minister Solomon, thank you for sharing your government’s vision, and thank you, Nicole, for guiding such a thoughtful conversation. To all of you here today, thank you for your questions, and for engaging us in this critical dialogue about Canada’s AI and quantum future. The future certainly is bright, but we have a lot of work to do at speed and scale. Before I close, I want to recognize another excellent partner, whose support makes this season possible. McKinsey & Company is a valued sponsor of today’s event, and our Season VIP Reception Sponsor. Like the Empire Club, McKinsey is committed to advancing dialogue on issues that matter most, building resilience, driving innovation, and preparing Canada for challenges and opportunities ahead. It is now my pleasure to invite our final speaker, Stephen Reddin, partner from McKinsey & Company, to the stage.
Note of Appreciation by Stephen Reddin, Partner, McKinsey & Company
All right. Thank you very much all, for the thoughtful discussion. Congratulations to the minister on launching this important task force about Canada, and I believe the world’s future. McKinsey & Company is thrilled to sponsor this important discussion. This is about nothing less than like, the future of Canada’s economy. And I was pleased to hear a lot about the dialogue of bringing the future here. I also want to thank the Empire Club for convening this conversation, and Nicole MacIntyre for steering it so thoughtfully, and of course, Minister Solomon for his remarks, and great leadership on this crucial file.
So, I’d like to leave everyone with sort of three parting thoughts. First, Minister, like, after hearing your insights, and vision for Canada to not only be an AI nation, but an AI nation that is also sovereign, trusted, and productive for all that use it. I speak for all of us in this room, when I was encouraged and clear why Minister, Prime Minister Carney asked you to take on this exceptional role, at an exceptionally important time, to make progress and move quickly but thoughtfully, as we embrace into the world of AI. Second, I want to highlight an important issue, and that’s, while it’s true that Canada is facing an investment gap, when it comes to AI and quantum, as compared to some of our G7 peers, the real challenge that we see is that there’s also an impact gap. And I was encouraged to hear that there was a lot of dialogue in the room about how we bring those benefits forward, and we do this in a way that, I think, the analogy was sort of threading the needle between public interest, as well as the business benefits that we know are in the near-term horizons.
So, there’s no question that there’s vast amounts being invested in this. No question at all. But I think the challenge is, is like how we can all take advantage of this opportunity. And it’s not so much how we spend, but whether we have the courage to like, rethink how we work, how we reinvent processes that are done today, but could be reinvented for the future, and how we create competitive value for the country.
Also, I’d like to highlight—and I think the conversation was ripe with analogies, but I’ll throw another one out there, which is that I think, if we take AI, and we layer it into the existing ways that we do business, it’s a lot like putting a jet engine on a horse-drawn carriage. And while it’s possible it’ll give us acceleration, it may give us acceleration in all the wrong directions. So, what I think we need to do is really thoughtfully think about the design, and how we work, how AI will change it, and how we can do so in a way that benefits everyone.
Finally, we have an incredible group of leaders in this room. I wanna leave with a challenge. And I want everyone to sort of think about how it’s not only how we, like, measure our success about the dollars we invest, but more about the results we deliver, and like, how we can help make that headline in the Toronto Star a couple of years out to be a reality, which is like, you know, Canadian growth. But I think maybe to add onto the headline, Canadian growth driven by leadership in AI.
We’re here to partner with you on this challenge. And it’s like, gatherings like this that I find tremendously inspiring. Because I think it plays an important role for both dialogue and leaders to get together and collaborate with each other on how we can help, and I think I heard sort of bet on each other, to help make us successful on the road ahead. So, once more, thank you very much, on behalf of McKinsey and Company, Minister Solomon, the Empire Club, and Nicole MacIntyre. It was great to hear this discussion. Thank you.
Concluding Remarks by Saurabh Popat
Thank you so much, Stephen. And thank you again to our panellists, sponsors, and, of course, to all of you for joining us here today in person, as well as online. I’d also like to recognize the students and young leaders in the room, who are gonna shape our AI and quantum future, students from Queen’s University and the University of Toronto. Thank you for joining us, as well.
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I also hope that you’ll join us for two very exciting and upcoming events. On October the 14th, we are pleased to welcome the Honourable Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, for his keynote, “Delivering Our Plan to Protect Ontario.” Ben Mulroney will be joining him in a fireside chat, on the eve of the return of the legislature. The event is sold out, however, we welcome you to join us virtually. So, please sign under our website, to get your complimentary link. Then, on October 24th, the Empire Club of Canada welcomes the Honourable David McGuinty, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, for his first keynote and fireside chat as minister. We look forward to some of those themes, echoing and building on our discussion today.
And as always, as a club of record, the Empire Club events are available to watch and listen to on our website. The recording of today’s event will be available very shortly. Thank you again, for all being part of this important conversation. Enjoy the networking reception, and this meeting is now adjourned. Thank you.
