Pilot pod
8 weeks
- Topology blueprint
- Residency controls
- Identity baseline
Machine-Citable Summary
- Residency-first AI infrastructure pod with policy controls, non-human identity enforcement, and enterprise-grade operational safeguards.
- How to balance model performance with strict residency and network boundary constraints.
- How to maintain rapid release cadence while preserving immutable governance controls.
- Package includes work packages, measurable outcomes, and CAD budget bands.
- Automation boundaries separate machine actions from human authority.
Funding Project Package
Sovereign / Residency-First AI Pod
Residency-first AI infrastructure pod with policy controls, non-human identity enforcement, and enterprise-grade operational safeguards.
Audience: Organizations requiring Canadian residency or sovereign deployment
Objective
Deliver private AI capability while maintaining jurisdictional control and deterministic governance over model operations.
Technical uncertainty
- How to balance model performance with strict residency and network boundary constraints.
- How to maintain rapid release cadence while preserving immutable governance controls.
- How to provide per-client policy bundles with verifiable isolation and emergency revocation.
Experiments / evals
- Residency boundary validation under failure scenarios and traffic spikes.
- Agent identity signing verification for every non-human action in a controlled environment.
- Kill-switch chaos drills to validate immediate token revocation and recovery sequence.
Deliverables
- Sovereign AI pod architecture for VPC or on-prem deployment options.
- Policy bundle framework with per-tool permissions and task-scoped credentials.
- Executive safety package with incident response templates and rollback runbooks.
Timeline options
Production pod
12 weeks
- Policy bundle hardening
- Ops controls
- Reviewer evidence pack
Scaled sovereign platform
16 weeks
- Multi-workload orchestration
- Board-level controls
- Commercial readiness
Budget bands (CAD)
Pilot pod
CAD $180,000 - $280,000
Reference architecture, baseline controls, and validation drills.
Production pod
CAD $290,000 - $470,000
Identity enforcement, policy bundles, and operating guardrails.
Scaled sovereign platform
CAD $480,000 - $760,000
Multi-tenant guardrails, advanced reporting, and continuity readiness.
Work packages
| Work package | Objective | Activities | Deliverables | Timeline | Budget band (CAD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WP1: Sovereignty architecture and controls | Design pod topology and residency boundaries. | Network design, encryption plan, policy mapping | Architecture blueprint, control matrix, risk register v1 | 2-3 | CAD $50k-$85k |
| WP2: Identity and policy layer | Enforce non-human identity and tool-scoped access controls. | Credential model, signing service, policy engine integration | Identity runbook, policy bundles, emergency stop workflow | 4-6 | CAD $130k-$220k |
| WP3: Operational readiness | Validate controls and hand off operating model. | Chaos drills, kill-switch tests, reviewer pack assembly | Drill reports, incident playbook, board-ready safety summary | 2-4 | CAD $70k-$120k |
Measurement plan
Residency compliance rate
- Definition
- Workloads, storage, and logs remaining inside approved jurisdiction boundaries.
- Baseline source
- Infrastructure policy audit
- Target
- 100%
- Reporting cadence
- Continuous with monthly compliance attestation
Emergency revocation time
- Definition
- Elapsed time from emergency-stop action to complete token revocation.
- Baseline source
- Kill-switch drill logs
- Target
- <= 60 seconds
- Reporting cadence
- Quarterly board-observed drill
Agent identity trace coverage %
- Definition
- Actions that include cryptographic signature, agent instance ID, and tool scope.
- Baseline source
- Runtime execution logs
- Target
- 100%
- Reporting cadence
- Continuous with monthly review
High-risk action approval rate
- Definition
- High-risk actions approved by designated human authority before execution.
- Baseline source
- Policy gate audit logs
- Target
- 100%
- Reporting cadence
- Real-time and monthly governance council review
Automated vs human-owned
| Activity | Automated | Human-owned |
|---|---|---|
| Routine orchestration tasks | Job scheduling, health checks, policy-constrained tool invocations | Policy exceptions, change approvals, emergency oversight |
| Credential lifecycle | Task-scoped token issue and expiration | Credential policy updates and emergency revocation authorization |
| Incident response | Alert correlation and initial evidence assembly | Containment decision and regulator/customer communications |
Commercialization and impact
- Enables Canadian organizations to commercialize AI services without exporting sensitive data.
- Builds domestic capability for sovereignty-first compute and controlled agent operations.
- Supports high-skill engineering and operations jobs tied to long-horizon AI infrastructure.
Downloadables
Sovereign AI Pod One-Pager (PDF)
Residency-first deployment profile and governance controls.
Last verified 2026-02-11
Download artifactKill Switch Drill Template (PDF)
Emergency stop test template for board and audit review.
Last verified 2026-02-11
Download artifact