Artificial intelligence (AI) — software that can make decisions, recognize faces, and generate content — is now used across Canadian workplaces, government services, and policing. But Canada has no binding law governing how it's used.
A proposed law died in Parliament in early 2025 and hasn't been replaced. Meanwhile, AI is already making high-stakes calls: it helps screen immigration applications, police have trialled facial-recognition cameras, and one company was found to have mass-surveilled Canadians.
Civil-society groups warn that without real rules, AI can entrench bias and erode privacy faster than the public can respond.
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Binding federal AI laws in Canada as of mid-2026
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Academics and civil society groups who condemned the federal AI consultation
46+
Canadian companies signed on to the voluntary (non-binding) AI Code of Conduct
$925.6M
Federal AI infrastructure investment in Budget 2025, with no binding governance framework