Source: IAPP

Canada’s AI strategy and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s 2025–26 annual report, tabled in Parliament under the title "Championing privacy in the age of AI," together signal that privacy and trust are now being treated as prerequisites for AI adoption rather than deferred compliance matters. On 4 June the two documents arrived nearly back-to-back — the report was tabled in Parliament and the federal government launched "AI for All" in Toronto — and framed low trust as a key reason only about 12% of Canadian businesses currently use AI, while the government targets 60% adoption by 2034. The government explicitly links modernization of privacy legislation to AI risks and commits to strengthening laws to prevent inappropriate uses of personal information, including references to surveillance pricing, algorithmic price discrimination and behavioural profiling.

The documents align on children's privacy as a central theme, noting work on age‑assurance guidance, a proposed Children's Privacy Code, a Youth Council and coordinated attention to educational technology, and tying children's protections directly to AI and online safety measures. Public‑sector AI adoption is being promoted via a new Office of Digital Transformation and recruitment of technical talent, while the Privacy Commissioner's office is piloting a small internal AI tool to explore responsible internal use. The strategy also commits funding to expand national AI safety capacity, model evaluation, improved transparency, watermarking of AI outputs and a Canada Trusted AI certification program. For privacy and data‑protection professionals the practical implication is clear: privacy teams must engage upstream across procurement, deployment and data governance because privacy is now framed as part of the AI adoption solution.