Canada’s AI for All strategy deserves genuine credit. It names the real problem, which is not invention, but adoption. And it commits real money to closing the gap. The creation of a dedicated Office of Digital Transformation, the Innovation Fellows Program, and the commitment to make governments an anchor customer for Canadian AI companies are all the right signals.
This is the most ambitious federal digital commitment in a generation. And after 25 years of leading transformation inside and outside of government, I’ve learned that ambition without execution is just a press release.
The opportunity is real, but so is the delivery challenge. And we’ve been here before.
Ambition without execution is just a press release.
Canada has stood up central digital bodies before to drive digital transformation with mixed success and impact. The Canadian Digital Service (CDS) was launched in 2017 to change how government designs and delivers services. Its own evaluation found that the conditions required to enable change were “not yet systemic” and that sustaining capacity after engagements remained a persistent challenge.
The limitations that CDS has felt are not due to lack of talent or intent. Instead, it highlights that transformation does not happen just from a change in org structure. To change the way an organization delivers requires strong leadership alignment from top to bottom and across the organization. The work to change how services are delivered, not just digitize the current way we do things, is a wholesale change that needs new skills, new tools, new accountabilities, and the safety to try something different. When one team is charged with this work, but no other part of the organization is under any obligation, or sees no urgency to change the status quo, the impact is limited and the people that feel that disappointment most are Canadians.
The Office of Digital Transformation cannot repeat that pattern. If it becomes another centre of excellence that departments can politely ignore, Canadians will not feel the difference. Again.
The good news is that these challenges are not new—and neither are the solutions. Here are three priorities that should come next.
1. Make the Mandate Stick Across Every Ministry
The Office of Digital Transformation needs authority, not just an invitation. And more importantly, every Minister needs to own this mandate in their portfolio. Digital transformation touches every part of how government policy and services are delivered. It can’t be owned by a single office, and Ministers need shared accountability for improving how Canadians experience public services. Otherwise, the Office becomes a team pushing against a system that has no incentive to move.
2. Invest in Digital Public Infrastructure and Build it With Provinces and Territories
The strategy rightly identifies the need for shared data spaces and sovereign compute. But the health, social, and public services Canadians interact with most are delivered by provincial and municipal governments. There is extraordinary digital public infrastructure work already underway in provinces across the country that federal investment can amplify and accelerate.
That means genuine collaboration with provinces, territories, and the private sector to build reusable platforms, common standards, and interoperable systems that serve people across jurisdictions.
3. Set the Pace Early and Show the Results
The strategy is a five-year plan, but Canadians will start judging its success much sooner.
The Office should identify a small number of high-friction services, apply modern delivery practices, design AI into those services, and show measurable improvement within the first year. Not pilots. Not reports. Services that work better. That’s how you build the trust and the political will to keep going.
The Opportunity
Canada doesn’t need another decade of good intentions. It needs delivery. And it needs it now.
What will determine whether AI for All succeeds is whether the people responsible for delivering it are empowered, accountable, and moving at the pace the moment demands.
Natasha Clarke is an Executive Advisor at Kainos and works closely with Davis Pier. She brings 25+ years of experience leading large-scale digital transformation across Canadian government, most recently as Nova Scotia’s first Deputy Minister of Cyber Security and Digital Solutions.
