Building Sovereign Canadian Compute

A few months ago, when we started working on the Foundations of Digital Sovereignty, part of the motivation was that we were a little bit annoyed about the state of the national conversation.

Too often, “digital sovereignty” is code for the government subsidizing cloud infrastructure and AI compute on Canadian soil. Throughout this project, we’ve been clear that governance is the foundation of real digital sovereignty. Where the servers are located doesn’t actually matter very much, if you can’t meaningfully govern the data flows and economic activity that happens in the digital realm. 

But as we wind down this policy series, we have to admit that there are good reasons why Canada should be building publicly-anchored cloud capacity.

In Chapter 8 of Foundations of Digital Sovereignty, we dig in on what it would look like for Canada to get serious about building national sovereign compute capacity. It could be a Crown corp, or a public-private partnership, or something else.

You should definitely read the full chapter, but just briefly, we’d like to recap the ideas we’ve presented in this series. 

The overarching thesis is that digital governance needs to happen in the digital realm, engaging with the specific systems and platforms that define the digital economy. You can’t do an end-run around the hard work of developing digital governance policy merely by insisting on data localization laws.

In Chapter 1, we presented an overview of our thesis. Read that here.

In Chapter 2, we looked at technical standards as a key example of how technology governance can be weaponized to tilt the competitive landscape in favour of the countries and companies that play the game. Read that here.

In Chapter 3, we looked at intellectual property, which acts as a system for power and control of ideas in the commercial marketplace. Aggressive IP strategy is a key way that innovative companies limit the freedom-to-operate of their competitors. Read that here.

In Chapter 4, we looked at data governance, and the ways that Canada can empower citizens while simultaneously unlock value for innovation and economic growth. Read that here.

Data, IP and Standards aren’t the only three areas where Canada needs to develop governance strategies, but they are three clear examples where governance meaningfully shapes the economic terms of the digital realm — and none of these issues is addressed merely by building data centres on Canadian soil.

In Chapter 5, we looked at the risks of extraterritorial access to Canadian data. Through the U.S. Cloud Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the U.S. government can compel companies to hand over data, even if it’s stored on Canadian soil. Read that here.

In Chapter 6, we sketched out a procurement strategy for the government that would serve to build up domestic alternatives to the foreign hyperscalers who currently dominate Canadian digital infrastructure. Read that here.

In Chapter 7, we looked at other measures for governing these hyperscalers, to limit their dominance, address extraterritorial access, and reshape the digital economy in ways that provides more benefit for Canadians. Read that here.

Now with Chapter 8, we look at ways that the government can build public compute options that embed Canadian governance and standards right into the infrastructure. Publicly-anchored compute isn’t just about ownership or location; it’s about governance.

Since starting this project, we’ve seen the government announce policy changes — most notably in the “AI For All” strategy, and new data governance legislation announced earlier this month. 

Shield’s Matthew da Mota and Emily Osborne wrote about C-36, the proposed data privacy law, and assessed it through the lens of Foundations of Digital Sovereignty Chapter 4. Short version: It’s not perfect, but it’s mostly a step forward. But you should read the full write-up here.

Starting next week, we’ll be launching into a fun summer project. More to say on that soon, but for now, let’s just say that you might want to subscribe to the Gloves Off podcast feed. Watch this space!