Feds spend more than $600K on artificial intelligence projects in northern Ontario

Feds spend more than $600K on artificial intelligence projects in northern Ontario

Funding is part of government's national AI strategy, says minister

Federal government announces more than $600K for northern Ontario AI projects

The federal government is spending more than $634,000 on three artificial intelligence projects across northern Ontario as part of its national AI strategy.

The funds were announced on Thursday at the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ont.

The money is earmarked for three organizations:

“The goal here is to match what we're doing with our overall national AI strategy, which is AI for All: build trust, create opportunity and build sovereign control,” said Evan Solomon, minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation and minister for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev).

“Creating opportunities for small, medium-sized companies and young people to get the opportunity to innovate and work.”

Solomon described AI as “the fastest growing job sector,” saying more than 150,000 people across Canada already work in the AI sphere specifically.

“You're seeing the benefits of it but there's real concerns, too, and we should acknowledge them,” Solomon said.

The federal government is creating 90,000 job placements in AI, he said, as well as releasing a national, free AI literacy program for students and Canadians at large.

“One of the great hedges against job displacement is skills training and education, so we want to make sure we're providing job opportunities and skills and education,” he said.

Patty Hajdu is minister of jobs and families and minister responsible for FedNor, as well as MP for Thunder Bay—Superior North.

She said that while the adoption of AI in northern Ontario is “slightly behind the rest of Canada,” it is being introduced in new ways across multiple sectors.

“People are using [AI] every single day in their lives — in some ways they know about it and in other ways they don't,” Hajdu said. “There's a fabric to AI that's starting to underpin the way that business is done.”

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Hajdu explained that although AI is changing the nature of work, it’s also creating new kinds of jobs, as well as ways for people to conduct business more efficiently.

“Today is about making sure that people understand that there is a place for them in a world that will increasingly be shaped by AI, and that we can develop those skills,” she said.

Skill sharing between youth, business leaders

Richard Gemmill is executive director of the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre, which provides support and resources to businesses, manufacturers and entrepreneurs in the region.

In its first cohort, the centre’s Youth Tech Impact Program connected nine youth with companies in need of technological innovation, where they completed 16-week placements.

“Most of them, if not all of them, had some aspect of AI as part of that project to implement or integrate AI into the operations,” said Gemmill.

As for the businesses, they “were all really impressed with the skills that the youth brought, but also their ability to just work within AI and bring value to their company.”

Most of the federal funding is going directly to entrepreneurs so they can hire youth and subsidize their wages, he added.

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Gemmill said similar training models are being replicated elsewhere, and as AI continues to evolve, he expects to see more programs like this in the future.

“We are incentivizing and motivating youth to be gaining experiences in this area but sharing their skills with companies that don't have that skill set,” he said.

Sarah Law is a CBC News reporter based in Thunder Bay, Ont., and has also worked for newspapers and online publications elsewhere in the province. Have a story tip? You can reach her at sarah.law@cbc.ca.