Canada announced a $2.3-billion AI strategy last week. Most of it doesn't matter to your business yet. One piece does — and it's been quietly available since April.
The announcement on June 4 was called AI for All. Prime Minister Carney, six pillars, a ten-year vision: 60% of Canadian businesses using AI by 2034, 250,000 new AI-related jobs, the works. If you saw the headline and kept scrolling, I don't blame you. National strategies are not, as a rule, things you can act on Monday morning.
But buried inside this one is something that already exists, already takes applications, and is actually built for the kind of business that reads this Brief. That's the part worth your attention. The rest you can let policy people argue about for the next decade.
Let me show you what I mean.
What Does Canada's $2.3 Billion AI Investment Actually Mean?
Only 12% of Canadian businesses use AI in core operations. The strategy targets 60% in ten years. But the framing misses the core problem: most non-adopters are not avoiding AI because it scares them -- they genuinely cannot see how it applies to what they make or do. The strategy literacy programs solve the wrong problem for most small businesses they are trying to reach.
Roughly 12% of Canadian businesses are using AI in any meaningful way. Canada ranks 44th of 47 countries on AI literacy. The strategy treats this as a gap to close — get from 12% to 60% in ten years, and the productivity numbers start to look like the $200-billion economic growth figure the government is quoting.
I'm going to say it: the productivity numbers are contested, the ten-year projections assume a lot of things go right, and the strategy doesn't really name the actual reason most small businesses haven't adopted AI yet. Which is this: most non-adopters aren't avoiding AI because it scares them or because they can't afford it. They genuinely can't see how it applies to what they make or do.
If that's right — and from what I've read of the research, it tracks — the "adoption gap" isn't a fear problem or a cost problem. It's a "doesn't apply to me" problem. Which means most of the strategy's framing (literacy programs, training initiatives, building national champions) is solving the wrong problem for the business owner I have in mind. You don't need more literacy. You need someone who has actually done the work in your kind of business to tell you which two tasks AI is good for and which six it is not.
Why Is AI Trust a Customer Problem, Not an Internal One?
Canadians rank at or near the bottom of every global AI trust survey. If your clients know you’re using AI to draft proposals, summarise their meetings, or process their files, a meaningful share will trust you less — at least initially. The strategy names trust as a pillar without giving you a script for the client who asks whether their information is going into ChatGPT. That gap is yours to navigate before the national strategy addresses it.
Here's the part the breathless coverage skipped. Canadians are at or near the bottom of every global survey on AI trust — most nervous, lowest confidence that companies using AI will protect customer data, lowest perceived literacy.
That's not an internal adoption question. That's a customer-facing one. If you tell your clients you're using AI to draft proposals, summarise meetings, or process their files, a meaningful share of them will trust you less, not more — at least at first. The strategy names trust as a pillar; it does not give you, the owner, a script for the conversation you'll have with the customer who asks whether their information is going into ChatGPT.
That's a real gap, and it's yours to figure out before the strategy gets around to it. Worth naming, even if neither of us has a perfect answer yet.
Which Part of Canada's AI Strategy Can Small Businesses Act On Now?
BDC's LIFT program: loans from \,000 to \ million for AI adoption -- software, integration, training -- available to businesses with \+ in annual sales, paired with an AI advisor as part of the package. The catch: there's a Canadian supplier requirement on tools purchased with the loan. If the AI tool that actually fits your problem is American, LIFT may not fund it. Know this before starting the application.
Now the useful part. BDC's Lead with Innovation and Focus on Technology program — LIFT — launched in late April and was folded into the AI for All announcement. It is, as far as I can tell, the only piece of this strategy that a small business can act on right now.
The terms, briefly:
- Loans from $25,000 to $5 million for AI adoption (software, integration, training)
- Eligible if your business has $1 million or more in annual sales
- Pairs you with an AI advisor as part of the package
- Canadian supplier requirement on the tools you buy with the loan money
That last point is the catch. If the AI tool that solves your problem is American — and a lot of them are — LIFT may not fund it. Worth knowing before you start the application.
But if you've got a real use case, a Canadian vendor that fits, and the cash flow to service a loan, this is the thing. Not the strategy. The loan terms.
What Should Small Business Owners Do About Canada's AI Strategy This Month?
If you're already using AI, focus on what you're telling your clients about it -- the trust gap is real and won't close on its own. If you're not yet using AI, read the BDC LIFT terms. If they fit your business and you have a real use case with a Canadian vendor, talk to a BDC advisor. If they don't fit, close the tab. The strategy is ten years long. You have time. Everything else right now is noise.
If you're already using AI in your business — congratulations, you're in the 12%. The question to ask yourself is not "should I adopt more?" but "what am I telling my customers about it?" The trust gap is not theoretical and it is not going to close on its own.
If you're not using AI yet, the only thing I'd read this month is the BDC LIFT page. Not the strategy. Not the press releases. Not the think pieces — including, with some self-awareness, this one. Just the loan terms. If they fit your business and you have a problem AI could plausibly solve, talk to a BDC advisor. If they don't fit, close the tab. You haven't fallen behind. The strategy is ten years long. You have time.
That's the signal. Everything else, for now, is noise.
How Can Northlight Advisory Services Help?
If you’re weighing whether LIFT fits your business, whether you have a real AI use case, or how to communicate AI use to sceptical clients, Northlight Advisory Services can think through it with you. Elizabeth Lemoine works with Canadian small businesses on practical AI adoption: identifying which workflows actually fit, what governance is needed, and how to navigate the Canadian regulatory context including PIPEDA and BDC program eligibility.
If you're weighing this for your own business — whether LIFT fits, whether you have a real use case, or what to say to a sceptical client — reply to this Brief. Happy to think through it with you, no pitch attached.
Or if you want to understand whether Northlight Advisory Services is the right fit for where you are right now, start here.