QUESTION PERIOD — Privy Council
Canadian Cloud Infrastructure
October 6, 2026
Senator Moreau, Canada stores sensitive government data, from tax and health records to defence files. These data are commonly stored in foreign-owned infrastructure and, even when located in Canada, remain subject to another nation’s laws. This is a quiet but serious vulnerability. A geopolitical disruption or unilateral decision could, overnight, cut off Canadians from critical services — a digital black swan that no Canadian authority could prevent or reverse.
Recent events show that we can no longer rely on foreign assurances about access to or control over our data. Does the government require its data to be backed up and recoverable on sovereign Canadian cloud infrastructure? If not, what plans does the government have to strengthen Canada’s domestic cloud-based critical infrastructure serving federal departments and agencies as well as federally regulated sectors like banking?
There are two questions there. I thank you.
The government is expanding the AI Compute Access Fund by $700 million so Canadian start-ups and smaller businesses can afford the computing power needed to turn their ideas into products. Through the Canadian Tech Growth Fund, the government is also investing $500 million in growth capital to help promising Canadian technology companies compete, scale globally and remain anchored here. That’s the answer to your first question.
To your second question, on your security concerns, the government uses approved public and private cloud environments, including a highly sovereign private cloud environment hosted in a Canadian data centre and managed by Shared Services Canada for sensitive workloads.
Thank you. There is an awful lot of good news in that. I am hoping we can bring the Competition Bureau in to help the department in running these funds to make sure they, in fact, are inclusive of new providers and high-growth companies in Canada. Federal programs are often designed in a way that really serves the biggest companies that can afford the biggest paperwork. I know that’s what the Prime Minister wants to cut through. I hope that is the case. Thank you.
I am going to bring your suggestion to the attention of Minister Solomon. I know that you have a very good relationship with the minister himself, so maybe both of us could underline that suggestion to the minister.
