Edmonton residents raise concerns about large AI data centre in community

Officials at the municipal and provincial levels are eyeing better guidelines for proposed data centres as some residents express concern for a large-scale project at the nearby Edmonton Energy and Technology Park.

U.S.-based Walton Global Investments is asking the city to change its land use rules at the northeast Edmonton industrial zone to allow a hyperscale AI data centre campus roughly five times the size of West Edmonton Mall saying it would support and attract investment at the site.

“They create jobs for creating the data centre, but what happens after?” said Blake Luce, an Edmontonian who attended the city council meeting.

The facilities can already be built for major industrial use, but the application asks the city to permit the project within medium industrial… and limit the park’s rules for environmental impact.

A University of Alberta expert says large data centres could affect nearby communities.

“Although we have been seeing the efficiency increase over the last 10 years, regarding the computer part and the electricity part, well, all these kind of very big chips, they’re essentially consuming a lot of power […] just throwing one, say, small question to check GPT, that eventually gives a lot of power consumption, say, over one kilowatt hour per question,” said Yize Chen, assistant professor in the electrical and computer Engineering department.

Ashley Salvador, City Councillor, Ward Métis introduced a motion Tuesday to study and restrict large-scale data centres in the city.

Salvador says some projections show people’s water and power bills could go up by hundreds of dollars a year.

“Quite frankly I don’t think our land use bylaw is prepared,” Salvador said. “These are happening at a scale and scope and magnitude that we have not seen before, and the pace of development we are seeing is fast.”

Growth spiked when the province aimed to attract more data centre projects nearly two years ago.

Premier Danielle Smith acknowledging concerns from residents across Alberta at an unrelated press conference Saturday afternoon.

“Part of the concern that we heard was the proximity to people’s residences, we’ve heard concerns about making sure the best available water technology is used, so that it can minimize water use, and we heard concerns about making sure that it doesn’t impact the power grid,” Smith said.

She added that more guidance will be coming forward this fall.

For now, Luce and thousands of other northsiders say they are hoping to keep their neighbourhoods healthy.

“I don’t see why this is being okayed if time and time again, there’s negative repercussions,” Luce said.

CityNews reached out to Walton Global Investments but they didn’t immediately respond.