Evan Solomon

There’s a big rush to build because of this new technology, and you gotta build right.

All the questions Canadians are asking about how are we going to build the digital infrastructure of the future are excellent questions … we get them.

If we don't build the infrastructure of the future here, we will have to buy it from somewhere else. And if we don't innovate here, we will rent that from someone else.

AI can do extraordinary things, but as it becomes part of our everyday life, transparency matters more than ever. Are you interacting with AI or with a real person? Was something created by AI or not?

We need to build this country together. It's not going to be easy. But I'll tell you what it's going to be the singularly most rewarding thing of our lives.

The government is setting an ambitious goal to double Canada's exports outside of the U.S. within the next decade.

Being an entrepreneur is non-stop. If you're not solving problems during the day, you're up at night worrying about finances. It's competitive out there, the world is changing.

Our responsibility is to Canadians, and to make sure that we protect kids, and protect privacy, and protect personal information. That’s what we’re going to do.

The new Act will not prohibit surveillance pricing outright, as does the Manitoba legislation.

We’re not going outlaw people who say, ‘Hey, I do get a discount because I’m a loyal shopper.’

The new privacy bill is pretty explicit that if in collecting information, the harms outweigh the benefits, then it will contravene the act.

It’s very easy to say just ban using personal information to give personal pricing, because we have to be super careful that we don’t want to penalize people who are members of a rewards program.

The moment is here. I think Canadians expect that their information should be protected.

Companies that operate in Canada must take responsibility for the risk their service is creating, especially when children are involved.

Canada’s consumer privacy laws are 25 years old. They were written before the iPhone. It was a different time, before AI, before deep fakes.

The legislation proposes giving Canadians the ability to request that a company delete their personal information, including AI and other electronically generated 'deepfakes,' made in an individual’s likeness.

We think Canada needs that kind of independent regulator.

We believe that it’s very important to set up a robust commission that has those enforcement powers and that’s what we’re doing, in as quick a manner as possible.

When this bill passes, I’ll be asking the regulator for guidance, to publish guidance as one of my first acts on surveillance pricing, to clarify exactly what that will be.

“If the harms outweigh the benefits, as in the case with surveillance pricing, the regulator could take charge,” he said.

Protection is not the opposite of innovation.

We’re living in a different world, and our laws need to catch up.

“Canada’s consumer privacy laws are 25 years old. They were written before the iPhone. It was a different time, before AI, before deepfakes,” AI Minister Evan Solomon said after tabling the bill in the House of Commons.

Our primary purpose here is to give control back to Canadians over their own personal information and to require by law — with enforcement — that companies treat the information very sensitively.