Policy Briefing — Canada Opens Consultation on AIDA Regulations

Executive briefing: On 4 March 2024, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada published the consultation paper Artificial Intelligence and Data Act: Consultation on the initial set of regulations. The paper proposes how the forthcoming AIDA will define "high-impact" AI systems, prescribe risk-management and record-keeping duties for developers and managers, and establish transparency requirements for general-purpose AI providers. Organisations operating in Canada must evaluate how enumerated use cases—such as employment screening, credit decisioning, essential services eligibility, and biometric identification—map to their portfolios before final regulations are drafted.

Key proposals

Enumerated high-impact classes. ISED recommends combining a list of high-impact contexts (biometric identification, consequential employment and credit decisions, access to essential services, law enforcement, and critical infrastructure management) with risk indicators so regulators can capture emerging harms.
Developer and manager obligations. High-impact system developers would implement documented risk-management programs, register systems with the AI and Data Commissioner, perform pre-deployment and ongoing testing for biased outcomes, and maintain records describing datasets, system purpose, mitigation steps, and incident history.
Transparency for general-purpose AI. Providers of general-purpose systems would supply technical documentation, usage restrictions, and safeguards to downstream deployers, including summaries of training data, known limitations, and measures taken to respect intellectual property.

Implementation timeline

Consultation window. Stakeholders can submit feedback on the proposed regulatory approaches through spring 2024; ISED will incorporate responses before publishing draft regulations in the Canada Gazette, Part I.
Regulatory drafting. Draft instruments will clarify registration triggers, incident reporting timeframes, administrative monetary penalties, and coordination mechanisms with provincial privacy commissioners.
Coming into force. Final regulations are expected after parliamentary scrutiny of Bill C-27 concludes; organisations should expect phased enforcement once the AI and Data Commissioner stands up supervisory processes.

Program actions

Portfolio mapping. Inventory AI systems touching employment, credit, immigration, health, and essential services to determine which assets will be considered high-impact under the proposed classes.
Evidence preparation. Build documentation templates that capture training data provenance, evaluation metrics, bias mitigation, and downstream disclosure artefacts so submissions to the Commissioner can be assembled quickly.
Third-party governance. Update vendor diligence and contractual clauses so external AI providers commit to supplying the documentation and incident notifications envisioned under AIDA.

Sources

Zeph Tech is equipping Canadian teams with AIDA readiness roadmaps, high-impact system inventories, and regulator engagement templates.