In the United States, data centre developments have become an increasingly pressing issue for many communities. They bring noise pollution, water contamination, and higher utility bills, which can have the added effect of lowering property values of nearby residents. Data centres also offer relatively few jobs despite their scale and environmental impacts, with even the largest data centres only needing a few hundred workers. While this issue is more commonly felt by Americans, Canada is not immune to this problem.
Canadian data centres
In Canada, there are already around 300 data centres in operation, and while current data centres are generally smaller than their American counterparts, that will soon change. Both the federal and provincial governments are actively incentivising new data centre projects in Canada in a push for data centre sovereignty.
The federal government has already invested 2 billion dollars of taxpayer money to accommodate them. Already, many new data centres are under construction. In Saskatchewan, a 300 megawatt (MW) data centre is being constructed near Regina and is set to open in 2027. Just later this year a 90MW data centre is set to open in Alberta just five kilometres north of Calgary. 90 megawatts is enough energy to power up to 90,000 homes continuously.
And this is just the beginning: even bigger data centre projects are in the planning stages across Canada.
In the small town of Olds, Alberta, Synapse Real Estate Corp is pushing for a massive development. They plan to build a cluster of ten 100MW data centres and a 1.4 gigawatt natural gas power plant for the sole purpose of powering the data centres. A gas power plant of this size could release anywhere up to 20,000 tons of CO2 per day. Furthermore, the plot of land for development borders right on the town’s northeast, which poses a risk of air pollution for the town.
Their first application to build the facilities had been rejected by the Alberta Utilities Commission in part due to public consultation issues. Less than a month later they are submitting a new application and are facing renewed backlash from community members. One of the biggest proposed data centre developments is Wonder Valley in Greenview, Alberta. It is backed by multimillionaire Kevin O’Leary that would require a whopping 7.5 gigawatts of power – that’s enough energy to power over 6 million homes, or all of New York City. Like the Synapse data centre, this one would also use a gas power plant. It is also expected to drain significant amounts of water from the nearby Smoky river – around 6 million cubic meters annually, and will likely need many times more once fully built.
Resisting data centre development
Very often these projects will be rushed through the application phase before a community has time to mobilize against it, so it is crucial to remain vigilant of what’s going on in your community. Thankfully, communities in America have developed strategies that Canadians can learn from. Recently, Hamiltonians were able to deal the data centre developers a partial defeat through an on-going pressure campaign on city regulators.
It’s important to from the beginning to establish community networks/organizations to have more coordinated and guided efforts. Networks made up of environmentalist groups, labour unions and community organizations have been popping up all across America. One common strategy is attending local town hall meetings to put pressure, demonstrating disapproval through sheer numbers and statements of condemnation from community members. They make it clear to their council members: if you support these projects, we will vote you out of office. Websites tracking data centre proposals and developments serve as a resource to people and communities to give public exposure to these projects. Pushing for your local politicians to pass bills or legislation to ban or restrict data centres is also a good way to stop the problem before it starts.
The fight has already begun in Canada. Ontario already has a data centre tracker that shows existing and proposed data centres. Some communities have already been successful in blocking data centre development. Despite all the challenges communities have and will continue to face, they can make their voice heard.
Author
Did you like this article? Help us produce more like it by donating $1, $2, or $5. Donate