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Mark Schaan (BA ’02)
Alum, Political Science
Faculty of Arts
Associate Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic
Development Canada
Opinion
Higher education is part of Canada's AI secret sauce
To meet our AI ambitions, we’ll need to lean upon Canada’s unique strengths
Canada started funding AI research more than 40 years ago, with no guarantee that this would be a critical enabler in the future. So, while the AI race is frenetic, our country has been running it for decades with the long view that true progress is a marathon not a sprint.
Canada’s success in embracing an AI future will be predicated on our talent, research, sovereign infrastructure, responsible adoption and thoughtful policy. These facets must be championed and interwoven into our approach to enable AI innovation to scale while also building trust for widespread adoption.
One clear advantage for Canada is a post-secondary sector that rivals the world’s best and is at the core of our nation’s capacity in leading AI. It is through our universities and colleges that we helped make modern AI a reality for the world. Co-op students are not only gaining skills for testing and adopting AI, but they are supporting its evolution within enterprises and organizations as they bring new knowledge into the workplace.
Mark Schaan seated with the Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of AI and Digital Innovation for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on AI between Canada and Abu Dhabi.
Many of our AI startups and scaleups have roots at universities who incubated and accelerated their entrepreneurial and innovation journeys. Whether pushing the frontier of research, acting as an entry point for productivity gains, preparing talent or fuelling the next generation of firms, the post-secondary sector is a major part of the AI secret sauce in Canada.
As a Waterloo alum, I recognize the formative role the University played for me. Waterloo was where I cut my teeth on policy issues and where I learned the power of leadership. It is also where I learned the importance of building and being in community. This is a hidden underpinning of Waterloo’s success. The University’s reputation for bright individual minds in engineering, computer science or math is only half the story. The reality is that it’s interlinked with a mindset that reinforces community and drives ingenuity and entrepreneurship across a wide range of disciplines.
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.
