How Secure AI and Cloud Are Powering the Next Era of the Public Sector

The Government of Canada has made it clear that AI holds transformative potential to
strengthen public service and enhance the programs it delivers to Canadians. In its AI Strategy
for the Federal Public Service 2025-2027, the government highlights AI's potential to boost
public service productivity by automating routine tasks, speeding up complex data analysis, and
supporting more informed decision-making and scientific discovery. 

These ambitions can only be achieved if government departments trust that sensitive
information will remain secure, with strong governance in place to manage risks and safeguard
public trust and national security. To meet these priorities, the government has emphasized the
need for robust infrastructure, including cloud platforms, to power AI adoption. 

Fulfiling this vision requires a secure cloud infrastructure, which is not just supportive but
essential for enabling AI deployment across departments at scale.

Data at the heart of delivering on AI ambitions 

For the Government of Canada, transforming vast, siloed data into actionable intelligence is
essential, yet many departments contend with fragmented data spread across multiple cloud
and on-premise systems. This challenge drives up costs, slows innovation, and makes it harder
to deliver on goals efficiently and securely. The path forward, as outlined in the government's
digital strategies, requires an innovative approach that treats data as a core asset, enables
secure data collaboration, and delivers insights for faster, better decision-making. Achieving this
securely and at scale means having trusted and clear standard for cloud services, such as
Canada's Protected B Assessment.

Mobilizing data securely: a look at Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS) Protected
B Assessment

Canada's Protected B Assessment initiative aims to reduce burdens on industry while raising
the cybersecurity baseline across Canada's government and industrial base. The Protected B
Assessment is a security level that is used by Government of Canada departments when
categorizing information and assets.
 It provides the necessary framework to protect sensitive information of Canadian individuals,
organizations or governments from threats, to ensure public trust and safety. Protected B also
allows government departments to securely adopt new technologies and cloud services,
knowing that a clear and high standard for data protection is being met. 

Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, has recently announced it has completed the Protected
B Assessment and meets the CCCS Medium Cloud Security profile requirements for
deployments in both the AWS Canada (Central) and Microsoft Azure Canada (Central) regions.

This achievement provides the Government of Canada the flexibility to seamlessly innovate in a
multi-cloud context, while ensuring their sensitive data is maintained in Canada.

Snowflake's easy, connected and modern architecture provides a unified data platform with
built-in security and governance, enabling government departments to break down data silos
and safely accelerate their AI journey while supporting national priorities. 

Protected B Assessment enables mission-critical national priorities 

By completing the assessment, departments can work with trusted providers such as Snowflake
to modernize their infrastructure securely and with confidence to support a variety of mission-
critical priorities such as: 

• Combat fraud, waste and abuse: Leverage advanced analytics and a unified data view to rapidly identify improper payments, detect outlier activity, and ensure program integrity.
• Deliver a citizen 360 experience: Unify disparate data sets into a comprehensive view of the citizen to improve program integrity, verify eligibility, and deliver modern, personalized services.
• Empower data-driven decision making: Equip leadership with trusted, timely, and comprehensive insights from across the organization to support evidence-based policy and strategic planning.
• Drive operational efficiency: Break down data silos between operational systems to automate workflows, streamline manual processes, and empower personnel to focus on higher-value tasks.
• Build a data foundation for AI: Leverage a compliant, high-quality data foundation to securely develop, deploy, and scale trusted AI and machine learning applications.
• Enhance financial management: Create a single source of truth for financial data to achieve near real-time insights, ensure fiscal accountability, and optimize spending across programs.
• Enable secure data sharing and collaboration: Break down silos by sharing live, governed data across departments and with trusted partners, without the complexity of data duplication and costly integrations.

Powering the future of the public sector in Canada

Delivering on Canada's ambition and vision for innovative AI in the public service requires the
confidence that sensitive data is protected and that risks are managed with rigorous
governance. Secure, scalable cloud platforms that have completed Protected B Assessment
provide the foundation for this trust, enabling departments to harness AI's full potential. 

For example, with Snowflake, departments can build and deploy their own data-driven
applications and trusted AI models directly where their sensitive data lives, without
compromising on security or governance. This commitment to innovation also extends to
Snowflake's ecosystem, allowing partners to build their solutions on a compliant platform and
accelerate their ability to bring innovative applications to government customers.

By investing in this infrastructure, the government can accelerate AI adoption across
departments, drive mission-critical outcomes, and deliver better, faster, and more trusted
services to Canadians.