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Canada has no national AI law in force.
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Its proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), part of Bill C-27, would have regulated high-impact AI systems but died when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025. Today, AI in Canada is governed by privacy law (PIPEDA and provincial laws), a federal directive for government automated decisions, human rights and consumer law, and a voluntary code for generative AI. Anyone building or buying AI in Canada needs to know which of these actually applies.
AIDA was introduced in June 2022 as Part 3 of Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, alongside a new private-sector privacy law (the Consumer Privacy Protection Act) and a data tribunal. Its core idea was to regulate 'high-impact systems' in international and interprovincial trade. Companies designing, making available or managing such systems would have had to assess and mitigate risks of harm and biased output, keep records, monitor systems and publish plain-language descriptions. The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry would have enforced it with help from a new AI and Data Commissioner, and the bill included administrative penalties plus criminal offences for things like knowingly deploying AI that causes serious harm. Critics raised three recurring problems. First, the original text left the definition of 'high-impact' to future regulations, so businesses could not tell what was covered. Second, the regulator sat inside the same ministry that promotes the AI industry, raising independence concerns. Third, there was little public consultation before tabling. The government proposed amendments in late 2023, including a list of high-impact classes such as employment, service provision and biometric use, but the bill stayed in committee. When Parliament was prorogued in January 2025, Bill C-27 died on the Order Paper. That leaves a patchwork. The Treasury Board Directive on Automated Decision-Making, issued in 2019, binds most federal institutions. PIPEDA and provincial laws in Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia govern personal data used by AI. The 2023 voluntary code covers generative AI developers who sign it. A common misconception is that Canada 'passed' AIDA; it never became law, and any future federal AI legislation would have to start again as a new bill.
A federal department planning an algorithm to triage immigration applications must complete an Algorithmic Impact Assessment under the Directive on Automated Decision-Making, and a higher impact level triggers stronger requirements such as peer review and human involvement in final decisions.
A Toronto retailer using a chatbot that collects customer names and order histories must follow PIPEDA's consent, purpose limitation and safeguarding rules, even though no AI-specific statute exists.
A Montreal company using an automated system to screen loan applicants must, under Quebec's Law 25, inform people when a decision is based solely on automated processing and let them submit observations to a person who can review the decision.
A Canadian generative AI startup signs the federal Voluntary Code of Conduct on advanced generative AI, committing to steps like risk assessment and developing ways to identify AI-generated content, without any legal penalty if it falls short.
Canada's direction on AI regulation is uncertain. After AIDA's collapse, the federal government created a dedicated ministerial role for AI and has emphasized adoption and competitiveness, and it has not confirmed whether a successor bill will look like AIDA. Privacy reform is also unresolved, since the Consumer Privacy Protection Act died with the same bill. In the meantime, expect more reliance on existing privacy regulators, sector guidance from bodies such as financial and health regulators, and updates to the federal directive. Canadian companies selling abroad will often follow the EU AI Act or other foreign rules anyway, which may shape practice more than domestic law does for now.
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Canada has no national AI law in force. Its proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), part of Bill C-27, would have regulated high-impact AI systems but died when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025. Today, AI in Canada is governed by privacy law (PIPEDA and provincial laws), a federal directive for government automated decisions, human rights and consumer law, and a voluntary code for generative AI. Anyone building or buying AI in Canada needs to know which of these actually applies.
AIDA se incluyó en el proyecto de ley C-27 en 2022 con una nueva ley de privacidad y un tribunal de datos, razón por la cual murió junto con el resto de ese proyecto de ley.
La prórroga pone fin a los proyectos de ley inacabados. El C-27 todavía estaba en comité, por lo que AIDA nunca se convirtió en ley.
Las obligaciones de AIDA apuntaban a "sistemas de alto impacto", un término que los críticos dijeron que el texto original dejaba demasiado vago.
El Comisionado de Datos e Inteligencia Artificial habría operado bajo la dirección del Ministro de Innovación, Ciencia e Industria, lo que generó preocupaciones sobre la independencia.
La directiva de la Junta del Tesoro vincula a las instituciones federales, no a las empresas privadas.
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