Building Trust through Governance: Strengthening Canada’s AI Strategy through International Standards

In June 2026, the Canadian federal government released its national artificial intelligence strategy, “AI for All” centred on national sovereignty, economic opportunity, and public trust. Interestingly, the strategy highlights a KPMG study indicating Canada’s low public trust in AI and low adoption rates, which the government attributes to low AI literacy. The same study also found that 4 in 5 Canadians (79%) are concerned about potential negative outcomes of AI, while three-quarters (75%) believe that better AI regulation is needed. 

Canadians’ concerns about the potential risks of AI and the need for good governance are not unique. Globally, anxiety about AI is increasing, with 7 in 10 people from 47 countries calling from stronger AI regulation. Many international organizations have already taken steps to promote ethical AI and good governance, as shown in the OECD’s AI Principles and Global Partnership on AI, UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, and the G7’s Hiroshima AI Process. While Canada has already signed on to these initiatives, its national strategy seems to prioritize literacy and adoption over effective governance and regulation. 

To build durable public trust and better align with global standards, Canada must adopt a coordinated approach with emerging international AI governance. AI systems and their impacts on people do not stop at national borders. Fragmented AI governance could lead to a regulatory race to the bottom, limit economic opportunities, compromise safety, and erode public trust. These concerns impress the importance of aligning our national AI strategy with international standards in AI governance, namely UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and its associated implementation tools: the Ethical Impact Assessment and the Readiness Assessment Methodology. 

The Recommendation on the Ethics of AI acts as a global standard for responsible AI, serving as a standard of ethical principles and a guide for countries to ensure their AI technologies protect human rights and provide safety, privacy, explainability, and transparency. Adopted in 2021 by UNESCO’s 193 Member States (including Canada), the recommendation outlines how

governments can establish the necessary institutional and legal frameworks to govern AI technologies, rather than rely on ineffective private sector self-regulation. 

Canada’s AI strategy lacks clear implementation details and would benefit from applying UNESCO’s Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM). The RAM is a practical tool to support governments in translating national values and ethical frameworks into concrete, practical actions. This tool would help identify the strengths and limitations of our infrastructure, policies, regulations, and human capital, while guiding actions for strategic capacity building. Quebec began implementing the RAM in March 2026, highlighting the utility of this tool at multiple levels of government. Canada’s AI Strategy has also signalled the importance for readiness assessment for SMEs and entrepreneurs through the proposed AI Literacy and Adoption Assessment tool. 

As the AI strategy points out, one of the most significant barriers to AI adoption has been strong public mistrust of AI. However, public trust depends on more than AI literacy. The federal government must also ensure that AI systems are trustworthy, safe to use, and beneficial to all Canadians. The Ethical Impact Assessment (EIA) offers a systematic approach for governments, AI developers, and researchers to identify and evaluate the positive and negative impacts of an AI system, identify and engage with affected groups, and develop risk-mitigation strategies to prevent harm. Canada has already laid a foundation in this area through the federal Directive on Automated Decision-Making and Algorithmic Impact Assessment (AIA), which are used to evaluate and regulate public-sector procurement of automated decision systems. However, its scope is confined to the federal government. Facilitating the EIA beyond the federal public sector would improve safety and trustworthiness of AI applications in Canada. 

Integrating both UNESCO’s Readiness Assessment Methodology and Ethical Impact Assessment into Canada’s AI Strategy would ultimately help build durable public trust among Canadians, and ensure that AI in Canada champions human rights, international law, and global best practices.

We recommend three specific policy actions: 

1. Implement the Readiness Assessment Methodology at the federal and provincial levels to transparently document strengths, capacity, governance gaps, and guide capacity building. 
2. Require the Ethical Impact Assessment as a part of Canada’s proposed Trusted AI Certification Program. This requirement will facilitate community engagement, transparency, and risk mitigation to ensure the trustworthiness of AI applications in Canada.

3. Canada should continue its ongoing leadership in international governance organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and others to ensure that Canadian priorities and values are represented in international AI governance and standard-setting instruments. 

Canada’s AI strategy highlight’s Canadians’ desire for safe, reliable, and sovereign AI, citing trust as the “north star.” To build trust and a prosperous future, Canada must ensure trustworthy governance through transparent capacity assessment, certify trustworthy AI through comprehensive impact assessment, and promote regulatory interoperability by implementing international standards.