Definition
The Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) was Canada's first serious attempt at a national framework for regulating artificial intelligence. Tabled in June 2022 as part of Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022, AIDA aimed to govern "high-impact" AI systems those posing risks to health, safety, human rights, or producing discriminatory outcomes and to create a new AI and Data Commissioner to oversee them. Examples regularly cited included hiring and résumé-screening tools, biometric and facial-recognition systems, and content-recommendation algorithms.
What happened to it
AIDA never became law. Bill C-27 was still in committee when Parliament was prorogued in early January 2025 amid the Prime Minister's resignation, and the bill died on the order paper. As of mid-2026 it has not been reintroduced, meaning Canada has no dedicated federal AI statute. Federal private-sector privacy still runs on PIPEDA, a law dating to 2000. The proposal also drew heavy criticism for a thin consultation process and for leaving key definitions and enforcement details to future regulation.
Why it still matters
Even though AIDA is dead, it remains the clearest signal of where Canadian AI regulation was headed, and a future Parliament may revive similar ideas. In the meantime, the regulatory vacuum makes voluntary good practice transparency about how AI systems work, human overview of consequential decisions, and keeping sensitive data under your own control more important, not less. Running models on-premise is one way to stay ahead of whatever framework eventually replaces AIDA.
This is general information, not legal advice consult a qualified professional before relying on it. For the current Canadian landscape, see AI regulation in Canada and the US CLOUD Act and Canadian AI data.
In Simple Terms
The Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) was Canada’s first serious attempt at a national framework for regulating artificial intelligence. Tabled in June 2022 as…