Alberta’s AI data centre gamble: Big investment or local burden?

Alberta ’s push to become a major home for artificial intelligence infrastructure has entered a new phase. After courting investors, the province is now trying to convince residents that data centre growth can be managed without shifting costs or risks onto nearby communities.

That public case arrives at a sensitive moment. Meta Platforms Inc. ’s $13 billion AI data centre in Sturgeon County is already under construction, and a recent protest in Morinville brought concerns about water, electricity costs, environmental effects and consultation into sharper view. Alberta has now launched a new information website and a series of public town halls.

Sessions begin Aug. 19 in central Alberta, followed by a Sturgeon County event on Aug. 20. A virtual meeting is scheduled for Aug. 27, with another gathering planned for Grande Prairie in September.

Those meetings will explain Alberta’s data centre strategy and gather public input. They are not approval hearings for Meta’s campus or any other individual project. Each development can face a different mix of municipal, utility, water and environmental decisions.

Meta’s project shows why the subject has become urgent. Company plans call for a one gigawatt campus about 35 kilometres north of Edmonton, making it the first Meta data centre in Canada. Meta projects around 3,000 workers at the peak of construction and more than 300 permanent jobs once the facility is operating. It has also committed about $60 million for local road and water infrastructure.

Alberta forecasts roughly $250 million a year in royalties, taxes, levies and transmission fees connected with the project. Those figures make a powerful economic pitch, but they remain projections. Construction jobs are temporary, permanent employment is much smaller, and public benefits will depend on whether the campus reaches its planned scale.