Reimagine Canada's Creative Future

Goals

This initiative transforms Canada’s creative sectors for the AI age. By modernizing regulations for clarity and innovation, strategically redirecting investment towards talent development and Canadian AI tools, and championing human-AI collaboration, Canada will secure global leadership in the creative economy of the future.

• Create 50,000 new skilled jobs in AI-enhanced creative roles and related technology within 5 years.
• Double the export value of Canadian creative technology services and AI-driven content within 5 years.

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Background and Motivation

Canada's creative sector is world class. Film making, television shows, vibrant animation, gaming studios, a globally recognized music scene, and innovative advertising agencies have led to our title as “Hollywood North”. These industries contribute significantly to our economy – generating over $55 billion (~2.5%) of Canadian GDP and employing over 500,000 people across the creative spectrum. Canadians excel at storytelling, technical artistry, and strategic creative thinking, attracting global investment and clients. Schools like Sheridan College and Vancouver Film School are world-renowned for the animation talent they produce.

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But continued excellence in these domains is not assured. Artificial Intelligence is going to irrevocably transform how film, tv, advertising, and music are made. AI can already write scripts, compose music, design game levels, and create videos. What once took months can now be done in seconds. And the technology is only getting better.  

This transformation presents both immense opportunity and significant risk. If we do nothing, we risk losing these industries altogether –  tens of thousands of Canadian jobs face disruption as tasks automate or workflows change. Vancouver's VFX artists, Toronto's advertising creatives, and Montreal's game developers all see AI impacting their fields, already reducing demand for a broad range of creative industry skills.

Our current support systems, representing hundreds of millions in annual federal and provincial funding through agencies like Telefilm and the Canada Media Fund, plus substantial tax credits, were not designed for this AI-driven reality. Copyright laws lack clarity on AI training data and ownership. Funding criteria and tax incentives that reward traditional labour models face uncertainty. If we continue to rely on these frameworks our creators and businesses will play catch-up while global competitors push ahead with their own AI strategies.

Yet, at the same time, AI is also an unparalleled tool for growth. Harnessed effectively, it boosts productivity, empowers independent creators, enables personalized content experiences, and enhances creativity. It represents a unique opportunity to enhance the quality and accelerate the reach of Canadian stories and campaigns. Canada possesses critical advantages: world-leading AI research hubs, a deep pool of adaptable creative talent, vast archives of unique Canadian content (like those at the National Film Board of Canada), and clean energy resources that can power the necessary computing infrastructure.

We need to proactively forge Canada's creative future. Canada must modernize laws to provide clarity that fosters innovation and attracts investment. Canada must strategically redirect existing public investments towards equipping our workforce with cutting-edge AI skills and supporting the development of uniquely Canadian AI creative tools and datasets. This approach will ensure AI is a powerful partner for our creators that can amplify their abilities, drive global competitiveness, and create new, high-value Canadian jobs.

Whether or not we do this, the AI transformation will not wait. By moving decisively now, Canada will navigate this change from a position of strength, securing prosperity, innovation, and our distinct cultural voice on the world stage for the coming era.

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Real-World Solutions

Canada's creative industries have successfully navigated profound technological shifts before, demonstrating remarkable resilience and adaptability. These experiences, alongside specific regional and international examples, guide our proactive approach:

• Industry Adaptation to Digital Editing & CGI (1990s-2000s): The transition from analog film editing to digital systems and the rise of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) initially sparked fears of job losses. However, the industry adapted proactively. Editors mastered new software, enhancing creative control. While some roles shifted, massive growth occurred in new fields like digital VFX artistry and 3D animation. Canada, particularly Vancouver and Montreal, embraced these changes, invested in training, and became global hubs for these skills, creating tens of thousands of high-value jobs and attracting billions in production. The lesson:Technological shifts transform roles rather than simply eliminate them. Proactive investment in reskilling and embracing new workflows allows the industry not just to survive, but to expand its capabilities and global market share. Our workforce can master AI just as it mastered digital tools.
  
  
• Quebec's Strategic Support for Gaming & VFX: For decades, Quebec has implemented proactive policies, including targeted tax credits and support via agencies like SODEC and Investissement Québec, designed to attract and grow technology-intensive creative sectors like video games and visual effects. This sustained, forward-looking strategy built Montreal into a world-leading hub, home to major international studios (like Ubisoft, Framestore) and thousands of skilled jobs, contributing billions to the economy. The lesson: Consistent, proactive government strategy focused on building capacity in high-tech creative fields, combined with attractive incentives, can create globally competitive industry clusters and significant economic benefits.
  
  
• South Korea's Integrated AI & Culture Strategy: South Korea treats its creative sector as a key pillar of its national innovation strategy. By linking cultural policy ("Culture Korea 2035") with AI development goals, providing significant funding for AI R&D in content creation (like virtual production), and maintaining clear IP rules (no AI authorship), they foster private sector leadership and drive global exports (the "K-wave"). Their focused strategy contributed to substantial growth in creative exports. The lesson: A coordinated national vision aligning tech and cultural policy, backed by strategic investment and clear rules, accelerates innovation and global competitiveness in the creative economy.

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What Needs To Be Done

Modernize existing frameworks and strategically redirect resources to empower Canadian creators and businesses in the AI era, prioritizing simplification and efficiency over new layers of bureaucracy.

• Modernize the Copyright Act (within 12 months): Amend the Act to provide clarity. Confirm that copyright requires substantial human authorship. Establish clear, balanced rules for using copyrighted materials in AI training, emphasizing transparency and enabling fair compensation mechanisms (potentially via collective management) that support creators without unduly hindering innovation. Update liability provisions for AI-generated infringements. Legislative changes initiated by Ministers of Innovation, Science and Industry (ISED), and Canadian Heritage (PCH).
  
  
• Develop and Leverage Canadian Creative Datasets (Ongoing, starting within 12 months): Instead of attempting to build a single national AI model, we should leverage our unique advantages and focus on curating high-quality, diverse datasets drawn from Canada's rich archives (NFB, CBC/Radio-Canada, Library and Archives Canada, etc.). Establish frameworks for licensing this data ethically and affordably to train and fine-tune specialized AI models (both Canadian and international) that reflect Canadian culture, languages, and values. Support the development of Canadian AI tools optimized for these datasets. Requires collaboration between PCH, ISED, cultural institutions, and the AI sector.
  
  
• Refocus Funding and Tax Credits (Program adjustments starting within 12 months): Update mandates and criteria for Telefilm, CMF, and NFB. Review CPTC and consult with provinces on their credits. Shift emphasis from rewarding sheer volume or traditional labour inputs towards incentivizing projects demonstrating innovative human-AI collaboration, development of Canadian AI creative tools, and global competitiveness. Prioritize funding projects where Canadians lead creative and strategic decisions, leveraging AI as a tool. Redirect a portion of existing funds from less impactful programs towards these AI-readiness priorities. Involves Orders in Council, Treasury Board guidance, and potential legislative/regulatory adjustments led by PCH, Finance, and ISED.
  
  
• Launch a National Creative AI Skills Initiative (Within 12 months): Significantly expand and refocus existing workforce programs (e.g., Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program) with dedicated, large-scale streams for creative professionals. Partner with provinces, industry, unions, and educators to deliver rapid, accessible training in AI literacy, advanced AI tool usage, prompt engineering, data skills for creative contexts, and human-centric creative strategy in an AI environment. Requires funding redirection and enhancement via Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), coordinated with PCH and ISED.
  
  
• Foster an AI Creative Hub Network (Ongoing, framework within 12 months): Support the growth of collaborative hubs across Canada (starting with Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto), linking creative firms, AI tech companies, and researchers. Redirect existing innovation cluster and digital strategy funding (via ISED, RDAs) to co-fund joint R&D projects focused on creative AI applications within this network. Strategic redirection and focus within existing ISED and Regional Development Agency programs.
  
  
• Ensure Affordable Compute Access (Ongoing, review access mechanisms within 6 months): Guarantee the $2 billion federal AI Compute Access Fund is genuinely accessible and affordable for creative sector SMEs, startups, researchers, and independent creators, potentially through dedicated allocations or subsidized access programs. Coordinated action by PCH and ISED.

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Common Questions

• This sounds like embracing automation that will cost jobs. How does this protect workers?
  
  • Ignoring AI costs jobs. This plan protects workers by investing heavily in upskilling them for the next generation of creative roles – jobs demanding new skills in human-AI collaboration, strategy, and using advanced tools. We're preparing Canadians to lead, not be left behind.
• Is this affordable, especially redirecting funds from existing programs?
  
  • Canada already invests substantially in creative industries. This plan makes that investment smarter by shifting resources from supporting yesterday's workflows to building capacity for tomorrow's global market. It's about prioritizing future prosperity within existing envelopes where possible, supplemented by strategic new investments like compute access.
• Won't changing copyright rules for AI training hurt our AI developers?
  
  • We need clear rules, not a free-for-all. This approach seeks balance – ensuring creators are fairly compensated for the use of their work creates a sustainable data ecosystem. This clarity, combined with access to unique Canadian datasets, actually strengthens our AI sector by fostering responsible innovation and avoiding lengthy legal battles seen elsewhere.
• Can government realistically keep pace with AI's rapid development?
  
  • No single entity can perfectly predict AI's path. That's why this strategy focuses on building adaptability – in our workforce, our companies, and our policies. We establish core principles (human creativity, fair competition) and create flexible mechanisms (skills funding, R&D hubs) that can evolve quickly, informed by ongoing monitoring and international best practices.
• How does focusing on Canadian datasets help us compete globally if major AI models are international?
  
  • Leading global models often lack deep understanding of specific cultural nuances. By curating and providing access to high-quality Canadian data (bilingual, multicultural, historical), we enable the fine-tuning of global models or the creation of specialized Canadian models/tools that offer unique value (e.g., better understanding Canadian accents, history, or humour). This creates niche advantages and supports the development of exportable Canadian AI expertise and applications.

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Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the global creative landscape. Canada faces a clear choice: react passively to the actions of global leaders and fall behind, or act decisively to harness this transformation to secure and grow our creative industries. This memo outlines a proactive plan to modernize our rules, invest in our talented people, and strategically position Canada as a world leader in human-centric AI-powered content creation. By making these changes, we will protect existing jobs while creating thousands of new ones, drive significant economic growth through innovation and exports, and ensure Canada's unique cultural voice continues to resonate globally in the AI age. 

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