The Canadian government announced funding for a national health-sector data space in June 2026. The details are still to come, but data spaces typically consist of a shared set of rules, standards and infrastructures that enable data to be used across organizations and borders.

Canada is not the first to try this. The European Union spent years negotiating its own health data space, which covers 17 categories of health data and 27 EU member states. In March 2025, the EU’s Regulation on the European Health Data Space came into force.

Canada’s health-sector data space announcement was part of the renewed national AI strategy, following the deputy ministers of health’s 2023 endorsement of the Pan-Canadian Health Data Charter.

Canada has the tech to connect health records. Why isn’t it being used? Canada’s health data is flowing abroad while Ottawa stalls on AI rules AI scribes in health care raise risks for patients and privacy

Canada has the tech to connect health records. Why isn’t it being used?

Canada’s health data is flowing abroad while Ottawa stalls on AI rules

AI scribes in health care raise risks for patients and privacy

AI requires data, and the health sector is a priority area for AI development and implementation. Growing concern about digital sovereignty — as Prime Minister Mark Carney set out at Davos — is reinforcing the federal government’s commitment to invest in secure infrastructure for sensitive data.

Infrastructure of this scale is never neutral. Decisions about how data spaces are built are consequential; they determine whose interests are served and who does or does not benefit from them. The EU’s experience developing the European Health Data Space, or EHDS, offers a preview of the choices Canada will face, as well as some important lessons to consider.

Institutionalize the longer-term goals

Canada’s health systems face challenges such as equitable access and workforce sustainability. While these challenges have complex causes, data and AI are increasingly positioned as solutions to improve........

© IRPP - Policy Options