Hon. Katherine Hay: Honourable senators, dear colleagues, it is my pleasure to rise today in strong support of Motion No. 3, introduced by Senator Colin Deacon.

This motion is both timely and important. Technology is reshaping every part of Canadian life, from how we work and learn to how we govern, heal and connect with one another. Making technology a core consideration across Senate committees is essential for responsible governance in this period of rapid transformation.

This means asking not only what technology can do, but also who benefits, who may be harmed and how these changes strengthen the well-being and prosperity of society as a whole. In other words, the “how” of technology-driven transformation is just as important as the “what.”

This motion is asking us to recognize that steady state is not an option. A sober second thought should not be steady state. And as complex as technology and innovation may be — and it is — what is truer is that technology is fast moving.

Forgive me, but I am not sure the Senate is always built for speed. However, I do believe the Senate can move at the speed of technology. In fact, we have no choice. We are in a global technological sprint — in the midst of many marathons — that is rewriting every file this Senate touches, and Canada must lead, not lag.

Technology; artificial intelligence, or AI; and machine learning, or ML, are influencing some of the world’s most pressing issues, whether we like it or not, from health care, the economy and markets, national security, education, mental health, climate and people — us.

Emerging technologies are advancing at an unprecedented speed. Canadians expect not only cutting-edge tools but also fairness, transparency, ethical oversight and resilient systems. If technology is an afterthought in our work, we will lose influence and miss something that we shouldn’t, and we may even become irrelevant. Change is hard; irrelevance is harder.

Let me take you on a journey from my old world. I would promise not to speak about it every time I speak, though I’m not sure I can. However, I ask you to now remember two things: a name and a statement. I will come back to them later.

The name is Adam Raine. This is the statement:

I was going to try and kill myself tonight when I reached out, and they helped me so much, I feel like I can fight another day. And they told me that I’m a fighter.

I love speaking about this journey in places where people are kind of confused as to why I am speaking there: on the stage of a tech festival like Elevate or, before that, Collision; at Davos and the World Economic Forum; even at global mental health conferences that don’t necessarily even consider digital, in places like Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom; and here in the upper chamber, the Senate of Canada.

I will quote again, though this is not really a quote:

What the heck is a social service charity — albeit the most trusted charity brand in Canada — nonetheless, a social service charity on our stage talking to us about technology?

That journey I will talk about relates to Motion No. 3 as well as technology and innovation. I will talk about a simple thing: a mindset shift, exactly what Motion No. 3 is asking us all to enact.

At Kids Help Phone, or KHP — the social service charity I mentioned and the only 24-7 e-mental health solution coast to coast to coast in Canada — that mindset shift happened seven or eight years ago.

It was anchored in the idea that if you know who you are, you will know where you need to go; you will actually see it.

We sat around an executive table and a board table grappling with how we were going to stay relevant. Kids are changing faster, and technology even faster than that. We did something very odd: We put two things that were obvious to the side. We put being a charity — because that was obvious — to the side. The odd thing that day was that we put youth mental health to the side, because we were Kids Help Phone and that was obvious. Then we looked at what was right in front of us, and that was not so obvious.

It was clear then, though, that we understood we were an innovation- and data-driven technology charity with a laser-sharp focus on youth and mental health. It was a reordering of words, a nuance, but it was a mindset shift. It was who we were, and it changed everything — from how we organized our front lines, to how we operated, to our vision, strategy and brand. And we quickly built the Innovation Imperative — “imperative” being the operative word.

In 2018, we used artificial intelligence and machine learning to launch new services and technology. We created new programs and access points from coast to coast to coast, with a strong focus on equity. We even changed our mojo. We didn’t just sit meekly at the corner of the table and ask to speak. We took our place at and even chaired that table many times.

As smart as we thought we were with that mojo, what we didn’t know — we had no clue — was that what we were doing was building for COVID. And when Canada and the world shut down, we scaled and then scaled again, from 1.9 million interactions in 2019, a 30% increase from the year before, to more than 22.5 million interactions as of yesterday — a 250% increase.

With that kind of growth, you must decide what you’re going to give up. We promised youth we would be there, so what could we give up? Nothing. Technology, AI and ML were an integral part of how we scaled and how we ensured that wait times stayed at around three and a half minutes over every 24-hour period and quality scores stayed over 90%. KHP moved at the speed of youth and technology.

I tell you about this real-life application of AI and ML — of technology and innovation — because it required one very clear, intentional thing: a mindset shift.

Since then, KHP has taken the stage in the technology innovation sector many times over, even launching the acceleratorKHP at Elevate last October and Davos last January. Why? Because lives depend on it.

Let me bring this back to Motion No. 3 and all of us. If the Senate examines technology in isolation, it risks enabling systems that unintentionally leave people behind or cause harm. By explicitly broadening the lens, the Senate can help ensure that Canada builds a future economy that is not only innovative and competitive, but also just and inclusive. These are not marginal issues. They are central to ensuring that technological progress delivers real benefits for Canadians.

Other jurisdictions have recognized this. The European Union Horizon Europe program, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — or OECD — Oslo Manual and the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act all require technology to be assessed alongside its broader socio-economic impacts. The United Kingdom and the Nordic countries also embed these dimensions into their innovation strategies, not only measuring success through patents and profit, but also health, equity, inclusion and regional prosperity.

Canada should do no less. There is no question — the pace of change is relentless. The Senate can either shape that change or be overtaken by it. Motion No. 3 is a simple structural step to make a technology lens routine in committee work. This is not a procedural nicety. It is a decision — a decisive act — that will equip our committees to protect Canadians, preserve equity and ensure public policy keeps pace with how people live, work and play.

Let me bring you back to the beginning: Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from California, a great kid who died by suicide in April 2025 with the help of ChatGPT.

I was going to try and kill myself tonight when I reached out, and they helped me so much, I feel like I can fight another day. And they told me I’m a fighter . . . .

A KHP service user triaged, using AI, to a human crisis responder.

In Canada, steady state is not an option. There are too many Adams who are asking us, pleading with us to ensure there is technology for good and AI for good in all the work that we do. Time is of the essence. Innovation and data-driven technology are, in fact, life-saving.

We must ask ourselves in every committee, during every study how technology — AI, ML — is impacting this work in Canada. Motion No. 3 is a mindset shift that can change everything.

I thank you, dear colleagues. Meegwetch.