Canada · Legislation
Canada AIDA, prepared
Canada's Artificial Intelligence and Data Act targets high-impact AI systems with obligations to assess, mitigate, monitor and report. Coming into force — prepare now, not after.
- Status
- Enacted trajectory — coming into force
- Scope
- High-impact AI systems
- Enforcement
- Penalties incl. % of global revenue
- Controls in Unorma
- 16
What it is
The Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (Canada), in plain language.
AIDA establishes Canada's federal regime for AI: organizations responsible for high-impact AI systems must assess whether their systems qualify, mitigate risks of harm and biased output, monitor systems in operation, publish plain-language descriptions, and notify the regulator of material harms.
The Act's teeth include administrative penalties and criminal provisions for serious violations. Because obligations attach to systems already in operation when the law bites, companies serving Canadian users are building their inventories and risk documentation now — retrofitting compliance is always the expensive path.
Who it applies to
Companies serving Canadian users
If your AI makes or supports decisions affecting people in Canada, AIDA's high-impact test applies to you.
High-impact system operators
Employment, credit, healthcare, biometrics — the categories regulators consider high-impact first.
US & EU companies expanding north
Your EU AI Act or NIST work maps heavily onto AIDA — Unorma shows exactly where.
Requirements
What Canada AIDA actually asks of you.
16 controls in Unorma — each with plain-language guidance, action steps and the evidence you need.
High-impact assessment
A documented determination of whether each system meets the high-impact bar.
Risk mitigation
Measures against harm and biased output, established and maintained.
Monitoring
Ongoing monitoring of mitigation effectiveness once systems are live.
Transparency publication
Plain-language public descriptions of high-impact systems.
Incident notification
Material harms reported to the AI and Data Commissioner.
Record keeping
Documentation proving all of the above, ready for regulator requests.
Canada AIDA in Unorma
From regulation text to audit-ready, in one platform.
High-impact classification wizard
The inventory wizard assesses each system against AIDA's criteria and generates the matching obligations.
Monitoring that leaves a trail
Oversight schedules and logged reviews prove your mitigation measures are actually monitored.
Incident workflow with reports
Track harms end to end and generate notification-ready documentation.
One platform, three regimes
Run AIDA alongside the EU AI Act and NIST with shared evidence — ~100 cross-framework mappings built in.
Track Canada AIDA readiness from day one.
14-day free trial · No credit card · All 16 controls included
Cross-framework intelligence
Evidence for Canada AIDA counts elsewhere too.
~100 cross-framework mappings mean work done once counts toward multiple frameworks automatically.