Canada’s newly announced AI strategy includes plans for “massive” AI data centres, a move that comes amid growing pushback from many communities across Canada and many in the United States concerned about the impact of these facilities.
Operating a data center requires significant amounts of energy and resources, in addition to the impact on initial construction and ripple effects on local communities such as higher electricity bills.
“Data centers require huge amounts of energy, and Canada has both carbon-based energy and, increasingly, renewable energy. So we feel like we’re at nature’s home,” says Arvind Gupta, a computer science professor at the University of Toronto.
“If we want data centers to be widely accepted, we have to think about sustainability.”
A recent Angus Reid poll released on June 1 polled nearly 1,800 Canadians and found that 68% opposed building large AI data centers near their homes. The majority cited energy and environmental sustainability and the impact on local and surrounding communities.
One example is Saskatchewan, where an AI data center was approved after local community outcry.
At the same time, nearly half (46%) of survey respondents said they supported the idea that Canada needs domestic AI infrastructure, such as data centres, to maintain sovereignty over these technologies.
The AI strategy, written by Minister of Artificial Intelligence Evan Solomon, explains how the government’s plan calls for doubling Canada’s electricity grid capacity by 2050, which is consistent with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s May 14 announcement.
Mr. Gupta said it is important that community consultation takes place to get these projects up and running.
“If you don’t consult the community, it’s going to be very messy and it’s going to be very difficult for local politicians to run that company,” he says.
“So it’s actually in the company’s interest to do the right consulting and make sure they’re really part of that community.”
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Data centers “consume large amounts of energy”
In general, artificial intelligence requires a large amount of energy to function because it is an advanced physical technology that runs programs.
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Like a standard computer, it includes microchips, processors, racks, connecting components, and cooling systems, but on a vast scale.
These data centers not only require their own dedicated space to function, they often require entire premises comparable to a small town. This means that they can have a significant impact on the surrounding community, not just because of their size, but also because of what they need to do to function.
“Data centers are energy hungry,” says Mike Welland, a professor of engineering physics at McMaster University. His background also includes nuclear engineering.
“So Ontario’s electric grid is largely decarbonized, primarily thanks to nuclear power, which makes it a good fit to locate data centers within Ontario as a sovereign resource.”
In a separate interview with Global News on May 14, Welland explained that the energy required for some AI software like ChatGPT can be compared to the amount of time used in a home microwave oven.
“A simple factual question takes 1 to 1.5 seconds in the microwave, which is comparable to a Google search. A conversational query, where the AI has to reread the script each time, takes 2 to 5 seconds in the microwave. If you give it a short document and ask it to summarize it, it takes about 10 seconds,” Welland said at the time.
“Then you start producing a lot of short videos. Even videos that are a few seconds long end up being five to nine minutes long.”
The AI strategy says these data centers will scale to at least 100 megawatts, and Welland said a typical Canadian nuclear reactor could output 700 to 800 megawatts.
If these data centers were to be connected to the same power grid as local residents, electricity bills could rise, Gupta said.
“Are we subsidizing data center electricity bills and driving up costs for local residents?” he says.
“These are very energy-intensive operations, so it’s really supply and demand. If a new operator comes in with a big energy demand, there won’t be as much energy. And, of course, the energy supplier, the hydroelectric company, will raise prices.”
Data centers need more than just a large, reliable energy source to power their machines. You also need a way to keep the devices at a stable temperature while they generate heat.
That’s why Canada is a good place to build data centers, Welland says, especially since it’s blessed with large amounts of fresh water.
“Computers are very effective space heaters. That heat has to go somewhere. So the heat has to go into the air or into the atmosphere,” says Welland.
“One of the benefits of potentially putting one of these data centers near a large body of water, like Lake Ontario, is because it’s a freshwater system.”
Welland explains that, similar to nuclear power plants, these data centers can pump water directly from the bottom of the lake to flush heat away from the data center and pump the water back into the lake.
“Unfortunately, there’s a thermal contamination aspect to this, which is a very legitimate concern, but it doesn’t consume drinking water.”
Heat or thermal pollution is defined by the United Nations as “the discharge of heated wastewater from industrial processes, such as electricity generation, nuclear power plants, and other factories, to temperatures that can affect the life processes of aquatic organisms.”
While the AI Strategy does not address mitigating the impacts of thermal pollution, it says Canada’s approach will include “stringent environmental standards and tangible benefits to local communities.”
The strategy also highlights Canada’s “physical advantages,” including a cool northern climate, as a way to reduce costs and energy intensity from these data centres.
On the same day as the federal government’s announcement, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced that his province would reject hyperscale AI data centers because the project’s size, energy consumption, and community impact outweigh the limited benefits.
“There’s a huge threat to the environment and not much benefit to the economy,” he told reporters at the Manitoba Legislature.
Prairie communities are among those protesting, with local residents similarly opposing the New Brunswick project.
“There’s no reason why these companies can’t have a proper dialogue with the community and come up with a plan that ultimately benefits everyone,” said Mr. Gupta.
“So I see this as a partnership between these companies and the communities that they participate in. If they approach it this way and do proper consultation and really think about the needs of the community, I don’t see why the community would object to it.”
