Quebec and Alberta plan to work together to integrate AI in government

MONTREAL — The Quebec and Alberta governments plan to work together to implement artificial intelligence in public administration, which Quebec’s cybersecurity minister says will help both provinces build on each other’s experience to develop new tools.

France-Élaine Duranceau, Quebec minister of cybersecurity and digital technology, announced an agreement between the provinces on Tuesday alongside Nate Glubish, Alberta minister of technology and innovation.

The agreement will span five years and includes no financial engagement, but rather a sharing of knowledge between both administrations.

“We’re all moving forward on AI, it’s new, and it changes at a phenomenal speed,” Duranceau said in a phone interview. “So why start from scratch, each on our own? We chose to work together and exchange freely to learn from what the other jurisdiction is doing.”

She explained that talks between the two provinces on AI have been ongoing since 2022, with Tuesday’s agreement making the partnership “official,” and praised Alberta’s interest in AI development.

“They’ve really made it a priority to transform their public administration and to set the tone from the top, and I think Quebec has that same wish,” she said.

Alberta has leaned into AI and is the centre of Canada’s emerging data centre landscape, according to recent research out of York University. Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram, recently announced a $13-billion-plus investment to build a data centre in Alberta, its first in Canada.

Duranceau suggests that the provinces could share AI tools they’ve developed, such as the one developed by Alberta to assist in their budgetary authorization or the one developed by Quebec to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities. She also points to training for civil servants as an area where the provinces could share ideas, noting that Quebec is rolling out training to help employees use Microsoft Copilot, for example.

“Citizens are currently using AI to organize their travel in record time, to write letters quickly…. Those are examples of how citizens can be more efficient in their personal lives. Well, at the state level, we have to automate tasks in that way,” said Duranceau.

This agreement could help find ways to use AI to make government services faster by performing some administrative tasks or assisting with research, she said.

Vass Bednar, managing director of the think tank Canadian Shield Institute, sees this announcement as a continuation of the general direction of AI policy in Canada. She points to the significance of Quebec and Alberta — “the two provinces who are both deeply engaged in their own kind of sovereignty questions” — joining forces in this deal.

Duranceau says that parallel had little to do with the agreement, except when it comes to a shared policy philosophy. “We have similarities in our desire to take the lead on issues that affect our population and not wait for the federal government on these issues,” she said.

To Bednar, the agreement announced on Tuesday lacks important discussions about digital sovereignty and building Canadian digital infrastructure. Rather than focusing on using AI to save money, she said governments should consider the cost-cutting potential of owning digital infrastructure to do things like video calls and sending emails.

“For whatever reason, our imagination is not there yet,” she said.

She criticized Canadian governments’ use of American AI and tech tools, and encouraged them to invest instead in Canadian innovation.

“(Sovereignty) is something you build and work towards. It’s not just going to be under our pillow one day when we wake up,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2026.

Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman, The Canadian Press