Glossary · Canada

Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA)

Also known as: AIDA, Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022

The Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) was a proposed Canadian federal law, introduced in June 2022 as Part 3 of Bill C-27, that would have regulated the design, development and use of high-impact AI systems in international and interprovincial trade. It died on the order paper when Parliament was prorogued on January 6, 2025 and has not been reintroduced.

AI regulation
Canada

In one sentence

AIDA was Canada’s proposed federal AI law (Part 3 of Bill C-27); it died when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025.

Example

A Canadian developer of a hiring tool, which prepared for AIDA’s high-impact system rules, now aligns its documentation with the EU AI Act and Canadian privacy law instead.

How it applies

What it proposed: Obligations for “high-impact systems” — to be defined in regulations, with later amendments proposing classes such as employment, access to services, biometric identification, content moderation, health care, courts and law enforcement — including risk assessment and mitigation, monitoring, record-keeping and publishing plain-language descriptions of systems. An AI and Data Commissioner would have supported enforcement, with penalties of up to CAD 25 million or 5% of global revenue for offenses.
Why it failed: Critics found that too much was left to later regulations and that the bill had not been consulted widely enough. Committee study was not finished when Parliament was prorogued on January 6, 2025, and all pending bills died.
Afterward: The government formed after the April 2025 election appointed a Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, who indicated AIDA would not return as drafted. A national AI strategy followed in June 2026. Canada has no federal AI law; privacy law, human rights law and sector regulators apply to AI, and Quebec requires organizations to inform people when a decision about them is based exclusively on automated processing.
Technical documentation: Without a federal law, documentation for Canadian customers follows privacy law, the federal directive for public-sector clients and, often, the EU AI Act as the reference.

AIDA vs. the EU AI Act

AIDA was drafted at the same time as the AI Act and shared its idea of regulating by risk, but it was a short framework law leaving the details to regulations, while the AI Act sets out requirements in the law itself.