JAY GOLDBERG: New data centre big win for Alberta and all of Canada

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In huge news for Alberta, technology giant Meta announced plans this week to invest $13 billion in the province to build a massive AI data centre. The one-gigawatt data centre will be located in Sturgeon County, where Meta plans to spend $60 million on local infrastructure upgrades.

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To meet the electricity needs of the new data centre, Pembina Pipeline Corporation, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management are building a new $4.6-billion natural gas plant. By 2030, when the new natural gas plant is expected to be ready, it will generate enough power to fully power Meta’s facility.

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This will help create additional demand for Western Canadian natural gas, encouraging more jobs and economic growth in that sector.

In addition, according to Meta, the facility itself will employ more than 3,000 Albertans at the height of construction. Even after the facility is operational, it will continue to employ 300 Albertans.

And these are good-paying jobs. Construction will mean jobs for pipefitters, electricians and ironworkers, among others, while permanent after-construction employment will include well-paid technical and operational roles.

Covering costs

Meta is also pledging to cover the full electricity costs of the data centre, including for new and upgraded infrastructure, and offset the data centre’s electricity consumption through contracting renewable energy elsewhere.

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To put a cherry on top, Meta’s data centre will use an efficient cooling system to reduce water use, with Gary Demasi, vice-president of data centre strategy at Meta, noting at a press conference that it will use less water than a typical Alberta golf course.

The Alberta government is estimating the facility will generate more than $250 million in annual benefits for Alberta taxpayers once completed, including through royalties, taxes, levies, and fees.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was quick to point out at a press conference that Meta’s investment is the one of the largest private sector investments in Canadian history.

While a massive new private sector investment that will create thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual economic benefits for Alberta taxpayers might seem like a win-win, not everyone was enthused about the announcement.

Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan criticized Meta’s announcement, arguing the project doesn’t sufficiently address concerns about water usage or power prices.

But Meta’s new facility will use less water than a typical 18-hole golf course. And a new natural gas plant is being built specifically to ensure energy prices for Albertans don’t increase because of this new project. The UCP government has laid out specific goals for new data centres that includes asking developers to build their own power generation capacity, which Meta’s agreement to build a new natural gas plant will do over the long term.

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It’s also important to point out this is a massive investment in Alberta, one that isn’t requiring an infusion of taxpayer cash. The project is full of upsides, but the naysayers seem to want to see clouds on a sunny day.

Critics take aim

Other critics of data centres in general have pointed to noise concerns as a reason not to support the construction of new data centres. But a data centre perimeter fence usually mitigates noise to 45-to-65 decibels of ambient sound, which is roughly in line with the hum of a refrigerator and is far less than the sound of the acceleration of a city bus or a passing motorcycle. When it comes to data centres, noise concerns are very much overblown. Not to mention, this data centre is being built in an industrial zone, far away from residential housing or farmland.

Finally, Meta’s new data centre means Canada will continue to remain at the forefront of the global AI revolution. The deep learning breakthroughs powering every large model, image generator, and AI assistant in use today, was in large part built on Canadian soil. Essential contributions were made by the likes of Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto and Yoshua Bengio of the Université de Montréal. As the U.S. and the E.U. race to build new data centres, Canada must keep pace. Meta’s new investment is a key step in ensuring Canada will.

It represents Meta’s 33rd data centre, but first in Canada.

Meta’s new data centre plan is great news for Alberta and all of Canada. Despite the naysayers, it deserves strong public support.

Jay Goldberg is the North American Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center

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