Gatineau, November 9, 2026. Digital Trust Canada (DTC) welcomes several measures proposed in Federal Budget 2026:
- $55.3 million over two years proposed for Transport Canada to advance digital trade processes
- $192.5 million over four years proposed to modernize the Canada Border Services Agency’s border technology
- Plans to extend data portability beyond banking, to sectors such as telecommunications and air transportation
- Plans for voluntary digital credentials, including a pilot project in financial services, verification tools for skilled trades, and potential use at points of entry
All of these measures rest on the same condition: being able to trust the data, documents and organizations that exchange them, in Canada and internationally. These measures also serve two of the government’s stated priorities, reducing fraud and improving productivity, and both depend on being able to verify who and what can be trusted.
For DTC, these federal commitments are an important opportunity to strengthen Canada’s position as a trusted trading partner. Canada is expanding its trade partnerships, with new agreements concluded with partners such as Ecuador, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, and a landmark Digital Trade Agreement with the European Union. Canada and the EU also signed a memorandum of understanding on digital credentials and trust services in 2025. The question is no longer whether Canadian data and documents should be recognized abroad, but how to make that recognition operational. The same applies to artificial intelligence. As AI systems and agents act on behalf of governments and businesses, it becomes essential to verify which organization stands behind each of them.
“The technology exists and the work is advancing. The challenge now is to make trust operational: ensuring that the data, documents and digital credentials issued in Canada can be verified and recognized, in Canada and internationally. That is how Canada will remain a trusted trading partner,” said Michelle Robitaille, President and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Trust Canada.
In a federation, digital trust must work across governments while respecting the jurisdiction of each. Data sovereignty is not only about where data is hosted. It also covers which laws apply and who controls the data. A trust framework can verify that an organization, a document or a credential is trustworthy without retaining the data itself.
The budget calls for government and industry to work together, notably on digital trade processes. Digital Trust Canada is ready to support those efforts as a neutral partner, aligned with internationally recognized frameworks.
About Digital Trust Canada
Digital Trust Canada is a neutral, technology- and industry-agnostic not-for-profit organization that convenes Canada’s governments, businesses and civil society, bridging policy, standards and implementation to enable digital trust, in Canada and internationally. As Gaia-X Hub Canada, DTC also contributes to international work on the interoperability of trust frameworks.
For More Information
Alexandre Lampron
Senior Advisor, Public Affairs
Digital Trust Canada
514 927-8092 | alampron@dtc-cnc.org