Canadian Sovereign AI Lab (CANSAIL)
The Collaboration/Participatory Framework
Partner with us to lead, design and build a state-of-the- art, Canadian-owned supercomputing facility. Built on a scalable, cost-effective foundation, our solution uses dedicated power to ensure rapid deployment and energy security without straining Canada’s existing grid.
The Challenge:
The Canadian AI Sovereignty Gap
As Canada’s demand for AI and high-performance computing surges, we face two critical, related challenges: an urgent need for sovereign AI infrastructure and a worsening drain of Canadian talent. Currently, much of our AI ecosystem relies on foreign-owned services, creating dependencies that expose sensitive research and national security data to external legal frameworks. This gap drives a “brain drain,” as Canadian experts move abroad to access and build the superior infrastructure and services offered in other jurisdictions. To operate securely while growing the economy, Canada must reduce these foreign dependencies by building domestic data capabilities. Strengthening our own infrastructure will act as a magnet for homegrown expertise, ensuring we safeguard our data and remain resilient in an increasingly competitive global landscape.
The Opportunity:
AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program
The proposed AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program offers an opportunity to help meet the challenge through a proposed investment of approximately $890 million to build a state-of-the-art, Canadian-owned supercomputing facility. By anchoring these new systems within public institutions, such as universities and research centers, there is the opportunity to provide a strong foundation for a steady stream of innovation that prioritizes the public good over foreign commercial interests. Ultimately, this program is an opportunity to produce a “talent magnet,” inviting our brightest minds to build the future of AI right here in Canada.
The Solution:
Canadian National Sovereign AI Lab
To meet this challenge, the University of Alberta is proposing the Canadian Sovereign AI Laboratory (CANSAIL). Envisioned as a national hub for AI innovation, CANSAIL will utilize modular power and computing technologies to provide the secure hardware, foundational models, participatory design and open governance needed to protect Canadian data and values. While the initial anchor components necessary to launch the application have been identified, this is an open invitation for others to join in developing the proposal. By uniting diverse partners across research, government and industry, CANSAIL will help foster a collaborative environment that keeps Canadian expertise at home, drives world-class innovation for the public good and ensures that the benefits of the AI economy are shared equitably across all segments of Canadian society.
Strategic Advantages: Scalability, Agility and Sustainability
- Broad Access: The most advanced AI resources will be in a resource pool that is capable of supporting research, innovation and education.
- Rapid, Scalable Deployment: A modular approach to the data centre allows for system expansions in months rather than years, while keeping costs low for members by only delivering what is needed, as it is needed and allowing costs to flow through without markup.
- Water-Free Cooling: The proposed system eliminates freshwater consumption, protecting Canadian watersheds while operating 5x more efficiently than traditional data centers.
- Northern Climate Advantage: By leveraging the climate of the northernmost major city in North America, CANSAIL uses natural cooling to minimize operating costs and energy loads.
- Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii): Amii will help shape CANSAIL’s direction. As one of Canada’s three national AI institutes and the home of Turing Award winner Rich Sutton, Amii is a world-class center for reinforcement learning research and commercial application.
- Customizable Data Security: Modularity allows for the creation of isolated, secure modules tailored to the specific regulatory or privacy needs of sensitive datasets.
- Economic Sovereignty: By engaging wholly Canadian-owned companies to help deliver the foundational elements of CANSAIL, the economic value generated through this investment in Canadian AI stays within Canada.
Collaborative Governance: An Open Membership Framework
To ensure CANSAIL remains a sovereign asset dedicated to Canada’s interest, it will be structured as a Canadian Not-for-Profit Corporation that reflects the philosophy of collective stewardship by Post Secondary Institutions of all sizes and types, government, research organizations, Indigenous communities, not-for-profits, cultural organizations and businesses. Proposed features include:
- Inclusive Membership: Membership will be inclusive to ensure the mission remains aligned with national interests rather than private profit.
- Indigenous Inclusion: Indigenous communities and offices will inform and guide the design of the governance framework to ensure that it meaningfully reflects indigenous governance structures and practices.
- Discussions with key ecosystem members: We welcome discussions with the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC) and similar organizations on how they can be included in governance, operations and design.
- Tiered services and voting structure: Organizations will be able to select the membership type that best aligns with their needs and the level of interest in being involved in CANSAIL governance and operations oversight, from simple observer, to contributing member on an advisory committee, to a member of the Board of Directors.
- Rigorous Sovereignty Standards: All members and contracted supporting companies will be bound by bylaws that enforce strict Canadian control, preventing “backdoor” foreign influence over national AI resources.
The Expertise Engine: Cultivating an AI-Ready Workforce
At its core, CANSAIL is not just a supercomputing facility; it is a national platform for workforce transformation. In a global economy where AI proficiency stands to be the primary driver of GDP growth, positioning CANSAIL as an engine for the generation of AI expertise will serve as a competitive differentiator for Canada — building, holding and attracting talent to Canada.
Integrated Impact Across the Canadian Economy
By strategically aligning a coalition of U15 universities, colleges, polytechnics and industry partners around the vision of a sovereign talent pipeline, CANSAIL will ensure that the AI revolution is not restricted to computer science departments but is instead a catalyst for supporting every sector of the Canadian economy in meeting the challenge of AI. Proposed programs include:
Skilled Trades & Infrastructure
This will help prepare a workforce capable of exporting sustainable, high-tech energy solutions globally. Students in hands-on technical programs such as welding and mechanical engineering will have the opportunity to participate in work-integrated learning (WIL) programs.
Industrial Productivity
Through “match-making” initiatives, researchers can be connected to SMEs and industrial leaders to develop AI-driven automation in construction, manufacturing and natural resources, directly addressing Canada’s productivity gap.
Ethics & Culture Frontier
Social science and fine arts graduates will be able to utilize the SAIL’s compute power to develop frameworks for responsible AI and create uniquely Canadian digital masterworks built on Canadian data, ensuring our national values and culture are embedded in the technology of the future.
Conclusion
The Canadian Sovereign AI Laboratory (CANSAIL) represents a generational opportunity to build the foundation of Canadian economic and digital independence. By uniting Canadian experts around a modular solution that will be overseen by a collaborative governance model supported by a diverse coalition of academic, Indigenous and industry leaders, we are creating an expertise magnet. This magnet will provide a reliable, sustainable and secure infrastructure that serves as the foundation for Canada’s economic and digital independence.
Get Involved
Please reach out to cansail@ualberta.ca to discover how you can join this initiative.