Nigel Wallis

@nwallis.bsky.social

267 Followers 474 Following

IDC Industry Insights

Kanata Nordic ski trails lit at night.
Seizing the Full Potential of AI The transformative nature of AI can create opportunities for millions of Canadians, businesses, and the economy. Budget 2025 helps Canada build necessary AI compute infrastructure, including the development of a Sovereign Canadian Cloud. This will help businesses seize the opportunities from AI, creating new jobs and economic growth. Budget 2025 proposes to provide $925.6m over five years, starting in 2025-26, to support a large-scale sovereign public AI infrastructure that will boost AI compute availability and support access to sovereign AI compute capacity for public and private research. The investment will ensure Canada has the capacity needed to be globally competitive in a secure and sovereign environment. Of this amount, $800M will be sourced from funds previously provisioned in the fiscal framework. The Minister of AI and Digital Innovation will engage with industry to identify new promising AI infrastructure projects & enter into MoU with those projects. Budget 2025 also announces the government’s intention to enable the Canada Infrastructure Bank to invest in AI infrastructure projects. Understanding the broader effects of AI is also essential, helping to guide our efforts to maximise its benefits. Budget 2025 allocates $25M over 6 years, starting in 2025-26, and $4.5M ongoing for StatCanada to implement the Artificial Intelligence & Technology Measurement Program (TechStat). TechStat will use data & insights to measure how AI is used by organisations, and understand its impact on Canadian society, the labour force, and the economy. This amount will be fully sourced from existing departmental resources. The government will also explore options for the NRC of Canada’s Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre to best position it to attract private capital, scale its operations, and serve as a platform for Canadian innovation and new photonic applications, including in the face of the rise of AI & related compute infrastructure.
Rideau Hall Skating Rink and Winter Pavilion