Canada’s AI Strategy Plans for Growth, Not for Job Losses
Canada’s AI strategy risks leaving workers unprotected as artificial intelligence reshapes the labour market. "Confronted with the possibility of mass job displacement, the government’s committed response is to watch," writes Dylan J. White, a former Digital Policy Hub visiting fellow with a Ph.D. in the ethics of artificial intelligence from the University of Guelph. Citing a Signal 49 report that employment could initially fall 555,000 jobs below trend by 2030 before recovering by 2045, White says the government needs to look closer at wage insurance, income support or guaranteed retraining if it wants Canadians to adopt AI at mass scale. He urges Ottawa to turn its labour-market monitoring into automatic triggers for worker assistance and strengthen workplace AI rules now, noting that waiting for clear evidence of widespread displacement could leave workers with less bargaining power and make effective action more difficult.
