New data centres in Saskatchewan must be Canadian and supply own power, province says

New data centres in Saskatchewan must be Canadian-owned and are also required to supply their own electricity, the province announced Thursday.

The measures are part of a framework that Saskatchewan’s government says ensures Canadian data is protected while also keeping utility services reliable.

“We felt from the very, very beginning that it was important for Canadian companies to be the proponent companies for data and AI infrastructure,” Jeremy Harrison, the province’s Crown Investments Corporation minister, told reporters.

“I think a lot of the reasons have been made even more apparent over the course of the last number of weeks. In the long-term, data and AI security is going to be as important for nation states as energy security is.”

Applicants proposing to build data centres must also be experienced and demonstrate they can create significant jobs, Harrison said.

He added the province will create a centralized intake system to decide whether to approve new projects.

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Harrison had made the announcement at the site of Bell Canada’s $1.7-billion AI data centre outside Regina, which is currently under construction.

Crews were seen on Thursday moving large equipment. Framing was also being done on two of the site’s four buildings.

Bell’s data centre is set to be the country’s largest Canadian-owned facility, using 300 megawatts of power. Some residents have been opposed to the site, raising concerns about noise, water and power usage.

The centre is not subject to the province’s new framework, as it will draw on electricity from Saskatchewan’s grid run by Crown utility SaskPower.

Asked why the framework wasn’t brought to the public before the construction of the Bell site, Harrison said the province was already operating with the guidelines in mind.

“Bell really was our partner right from the very beginning and we felt it was important to move quickly on this project,” Harrison said. “We had the ability to do it because power was available to allocate.”

He said public feedback helped inform the framework.

“I think there’s broad support for the direction we’re moving in,” he said.

“People have different views on AI and that is legitimate. I think the reality, though, is AI is here to stay, AI is an important part of our lives today and it’s going to become increasingly more important.”

John Watson, group president with Bell, said at the announcement the data centre will use no groundwater.

He later told reporters the site plans on using a closed-loop system where a fluid continuously runs through the data centre to cool it.

“I think the big concern, and you could help me with this, is manage the misinformation. Every time I get in a cab here, everyone thinks that we’re going to use millions of litres of water,” Watson said.

“We’ve brought some folks on board full time to engage (with the public), and we’ll take every opportunity to do that.”

He added the site plans on creating a system where the nearby University of Regina and George Gordon First Nation can use excess heat that’s generated by the centre’s processors.

Some have also raised concerns over how quickly Bell’s data centre was approved.

The site is located in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood. A rezoning application went before the municipality’s council in February. A month later, both the province and Bell jointly announced the project.

Days later, after the announcement, the majority of the municipality’s council resigned for unspecified reasons.

The province then appointed four members to council to restore quorum. In April, council approved the data centre.

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Brittney Senger, the Opposition NDP’s AI critic, said in a statement Thursday the Saskatchewan Party government is failing to rebuild trust on the issue.

“Harrison claims that the Sask. Party has already been operating under these guidelines for months. If this were actually true, where was the transparency and accountability during the development of the Bell AI data centre project?” Senger said in a statement.

In other provinces, data centres have become points of conflict.

In June, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced a large-scale centre southeast of Winnipeg will not go ahead due to its size and the amount of energy required.

In Alberta, residents have flooded town hall meetings voicing their opposition to proposed data centres. Last month, tech giant Meta announced plans to build a $13-billion AI data centre project north of Edmonton. It is to be fed by a $4.6-billion natural gas-fired power plant.

Harrison said Thursday he won’t comment on other provinces’ decisions.

“(AI infrastructure) can be here in Canada or it can be elsewhere. That is the question that we have in front of us and elsewhere would likely mean in the United States,” he said. “We choose Canada.”