Quebec’s digital sovereignty statement, explained.

The Énoncé de politique de souveraineté numérique et d’approvisionnement en technologie de l’information was presented by Minister Gilles Bélanger on February 13, 2026. It describes itself as a founding political act (“un acte politique fondateur”) and a strategic base that “servira de point d’ancrage pour élaborer une politique”.

It defines digital sovereignty as a state’s capacity to control its own infrastructure, technologies and data autonomously, and data sovereignty as data being subject to the laws of the country where it is located.

Under two objectives: increase Quebec’s digital sovereignty, and maximize the economic benefits of IT spending.

• Favour sovereign hosting of data in the Nuage gouvernemental du Québec and in the government’s data processing centres.
• Ensure control of data through data centres under Quebec jurisdiction.
• Free software and custom-built solutions.
• A modern development platform.
• International best practices.
• Use the room the contracting rules allow.
• Local expertise.
• Preserve major IT investments in Quebec.

It wants sensitive information to stay “sous juridiction québécoise, dans des environnements contrôlés localement”, mainly through the government’s own cloud. As a complementary measure it names data centres owned by the governments of Quebec or Canada, or by Quebec or Canadian companies, so that data held by the public administration stays in Quebec or Canada, “inaccessibles à de tiers étrangers”.

It does not set a hard test of ownership or jurisdiction for suppliers. Its wording is conditional: the state “pourrait” frame its IT purchases better by adding strategic clauses to contracts. It also says major foreign IT investments in Quebec should be preserved.

The same day, the government announced a decree allowing the ministry to sign up to 40 contracts under conditions different from those of the Act respecting contracting by public bodies. Some hardware and software contracts will be reserved for companies located in Quebec or Canada.

The government cloud is an infrastructure-as-a-service offering run by the ministry for ministries and public bodies, including for information judged sensitive. It is not open to private companies.

• Shared Services Canada issued a request for information on a sovereign public cloud in August 2025 and says it has launched a procurement process for sovereign Canadian cloud capabilities.
• The federal Buy Canadian policy came into force on December 16, 2025.

• For a private company: nothing changes yet. Your obligations on personal information come from Law 25.
• For a public body: nothing binding until a policy is adopted, but the direction is set: data under Quebec jurisdiction, with Quebec or Canadian ownership as the complement to the government’s own cloud.
• For a vendor selling to public bodies: expect contract clauses on data location and foreign access, and some contracts reserved for Quebec or Canadian companies.
• Where Canner stands: servers in Montréal and a Canadian-owned company with no US parent. That matches the direction of the statement; there is no certification or list to be on yet.