US EditionData stored in Canada can be subject to foreign courts, government paper warns
Ottawa spent nearly $1.3 billion on U.S. cloud services since 2021 but cannot guarantee full control of Canadian data from foreign legal demands.
- On Nov. 3, 2025 a federal white paper concluded Ottawa cannot maintain full legal control of its data if suppliers are subject to foreign laws, saying only fully Canadian-jurisdiction services achieve control.
- The U.S. Cloud Act illustrates how foreign laws can reach data abroad, and the report says complete digital sovereignty is impossible due to the interconnected global digital infrastructure.
- Spending and service footprints reveal practical dependence: Ottawa has spent almost $1.3 billion on cloud services from Amazon, Microsoft and Google since 2021, and mission-critical defence apps run on Amazon Web Services.
- The Treasury Board says Ottawa uses legal, policy and technical measures to retain some control, and the government has directed the Major Projects Office to build a sovereign cloud.
- Demand for skilled cloud and AI workers is high, hampering Ottawa's hiring and increasing reliance on external providers, while BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. have launched sovereign AI data centres this year.
22 Articles
22 Articles
Data Stored in Canada Can Be Subject to Foreign Courts, Government Paper Warns
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…
A new white paper warns that Ottawa cannot maintain full control over its data if it is hosted in other countries.
OTTAWA—A new Government White Paper on Digital Sovereignty warns that Ottawa cannot maintain full control over its data if its data storage provider is subject to the laws of another country. The document states that the federal government can only maintain full legal control if it provides the service itself or if it uses service providers that operate entirely under Canadian jurisdiction. The document emphasizes that providers must comply with…
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