Canada's AI Regulation and the Fate of AIDA

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.