Canadians aren’t sold on the data centre boom

Canada has put billions of dollars in data centre projects on the table, but most Canadians would prefer their provinces pump the brakes.

A new Angus Reid Institute survey of 4,417 Canadians found that 64% want their provincial governments to limit the development of large data centres. Just 18% want to encourage more.

The opposition is particularly strong in Manitoba and Atlantic Canada, where 72% favour limits, and Saskatchewan, where 70% do.

And Canadians have some fairly practical objections to the infrastructure behind AI and cloud computing.

Among those who favour limits, 51% worry about how much water data centres use. Another 38% worry they’ll drive up electricity bills for households and businesses. A third of these respondents question whether local communities will see much benefit, believing most of the gains will go to large technology companies.

The Canadians who want more data centres see the economic opportunity. Nearly half cite investment and growth, while 33% point to Canada’s competitiveness in AI and emerging technologies.

In Saskatchewan, Bell has proposed expanding its AI infrastructure project by another 900 megawatts, bringing the potential total to 1.2 gigawatts and as much as $52.5 billion in investment.

North of Edmonton, Meta has begun work on a $13-billion data centre campus with a planned capacity of one gigawatt and its own natural-gas power plant. Ottawa says it’s exploring opportunities for up to six gigawatts of additional data centre capacity, representing more than $100 billion in potential investment across Canada.

While some provinces have set their own rules for projects, the federal government has also started addressing the concerns Canadians have raised. 

In September, they released their Responsible Data Centre Development Principles, a set of five expectations for projects across the country.

Under this framework, new data centres must:

• Create lasting local benefits for communities and Indigenous rights holders
• Avoid shifting electricity costs to Canadians, and they can’t compromise grid reliability
• Minimize freshwater use and environmental impacts
• Disclose expected local impacts
• Bring what Ottawa calls “strategic value” to Canada

Those are principles, though, and the survey measures public opinion. It doesn’t establish whether any particular, in-progress project will strain local resources or how provincial governments will respond.

The poll also comes as Canadians remain unconvinced about AI itself. Just 28% agree that AI is a force for good in society, virtually unchanged from 29% last November.

The proposed investments are substantial, and so are the demands on local infrastructure. Developers looking to build the computing capacity Canada wants will have to make a credible case for the water and electricity it takes to run it.

Final shots

• Canadians favour limits on large data centres by more than three to one, with opposition reaching 70% or higher in several regions.
• Water consumption leads all cited objections, followed by concerns about electricity costs and who benefits economically.
• Ottawa’s new principles address those concerns, but the survey doesn’t tell us whether they’ll change public opinion.