BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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A new government white paper on digital sovereignty says Ottawa can’t maintain full control over its data if its data storage supplier is subject to the laws of another country.
It warns the federal government can only maintain full legal control if it delivers the service itself, or uses service providers that operate completely under Canadian jurisdiction.
The paper, prepared for the Treasury Board, notes providers must follow the laws of each country in which they operate, which can create competing obligations.
It also says storing data in Canada, or using a Canadian supplier, would not guarantee foreign courts wouldn’t have jurisdiction.
“Most countries, including Canada and the United States, have laws that allow their authorities to request access to information held by organizations within their borders,” it says, citing the U.S. Cloud Act as an example.
The Cloud Act also allows the U.S. government to ask American companies that have offices or infrastructure in other countries to hand over data they hold abroad if it’s required for law enforcement.
The federal Liberal government and Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon have been pushing the idea of digital sovereignty and Prime Minister Mark Carney has mused about the idea of building a “sovereign cloud” in Canada.
A sovereign cloud is a computing environment companies use to run services which can be set up to comply with a specific country’s laws or core values.
Ottawa has spent almost $1.3 billion on cloud services provided by U.S. companies Amazon, Microsoft and Google since 2021. That includes “mission-critical” defence applications hosted by Amazon Web Services.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2025.
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