Amid the growing integration of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud infrastructure, and data, technology-related decision-making is increasingly influencing how Canadian organizations compete, provide essential services, and react to change, according to a report recently published by the Digital Governance Council (DGC).
DGC shared that its report titled “State of Digital Governance in Canada 2026: Governing in an Age of Digital Power” aims to explore how geopolitical factors, digital sovereignty, and institutional coordination are influencing Canada’s digital economy, economic value, resilience, and competitiveness.
“Digital sovereignty is the capacity to choose,” said Keith Jansa, DGC’s chief executive officer, in a news release. “The practical question is what decisions remain within our control and whether we have the capability to act on them when conditions change.”
DGC noted that the report aims to help organizational leaders understand the implications of the following conditions:
- access to technology, infrastructure, and markets
- the ability to preserve and exercise meaningful choice
- the ability to align authority, expertise, and implementation across sectors and jurisdictions
DGC added that these conditions have consequences for procurement, investment, supplier relationships, service delivery, market entry requirements, intellectual property, economic value, and the continuity of critical functions amid disruption.
Digital sovereignty
While acknowledging the significance of data location and ownership, DGC emphasized that these factors were not the end-all, be-all for control over crucial digital capabilities.
“Data can remain in Canada while the technology used to manage it is governed elsewhere,” DGC explained. “Domestically owned infrastructure can depend on external software, intellectual property, administrative access or expertise.”
Regarding the contractual right to switch suppliers, DGC noted that some organizations may lack the technical or operational capacity to do so. DGC pointed to the potential cost and disruption of changing providers or architecture.
Practical questions for leaders
To help organizational leaders seeking to invest in technology and measure resilience, DGC said its report explores digital sovereignty through the following questions:
- Can organizations continue delivering essential services when a critical dependency changes?
- Can information travel across systems?
- Who can authorize access or assign authority to automated systems?
DGC noted that the questions raised often exceeded the scope of individual organizations.
“AI, cybersecurity, health data, digital infrastructure and trade involve responsibilities distributed across institutions,” DGC said. “Standards, interoperability and evidence of conformity provide common foundations for working across those boundaries.”
Institutional coordination
According to DGC, Canada can leverage its expertise across government, industry, and research to help organizations adapt to technological advancements and evolving market conditions.
“Canada has considerable capabilities across its institutions,” Jansa said in DGC’s press release. “The opportunity is to connect those capabilities around shared challenges and turn them into practical outcomes.”
More technology news
In September, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance, Canada’s Digital Governance Council, and the Council of Canadian Innovators shared a plan to collaborate to ensure that the new European Union–Canada technological alliance would lead to concrete commercial opportunities for both sides.
That same month, the Digital Governance Standards Institute announced the publication of the second edition of its national standard on the utilization of biometrics for authentication.
Enjoy this story? Read the latest technology news on the main page!