The Saskatchewan government has made progress towards establishing an artificial intelligence office, a year after promising to create one. That has unions raising concerns about the technology’s potential impact on jobs. “The AI office is going to be in place for us to build out our governance for AI, strategy, road maps and pretty much enable government to use AI responsibly,” said Blake Fleischhaker of SaskBuilds. AI was one of the topics discussed at a government procurement forum in Regina, where companies showcased technology and services they hope to provide to the province. Saskatoon-based ZU.com was among the businesses highlighting its AI expertise. “We’re using it for early detection of any kind of security risks, performance degradation, any dependencies across systems that might, you know, something might be happening over here that’s affected something over there,” said Cole Johnson with ZU.com. The province’s Buy Saskatchewan procurement policy is also expected to extend to AI-related purchases. “If you look at last year’s numbers, 99 per cent of all procurement was Canadian, and out of that 99 per cent, 94 per cent was Saskatchewan companies,” said Minister of SaskBuilds Sean Wilson. At a Saskatchewan Federation of Labour meeting, Adam Conover, a member of the Writers Guild of America who was involved in the labour movement surrounding the 2023 Hollywood writers’ strike, urged workers to negotiate protections against the technology. He also urged union members to negotiate strict guardrails. “What AI can do is really oversold. I think it can’t replace workers the way that the companies claim, but they can use it to try to make their product worse, lay people off,” he said. The provincial government insists it has no intention of using AI to replace jobs. It’s a topic that could received increased attention in future contract bargaining.
