MORINVILLE, Alberta – Hundreds of protesters gathered outside a northern Alberta county office on Sunday to express their opposition to tech giant Meta's plans to build a massive data centre in the region. Chants of "Down, down with corporations" echoed as demonstrators rallied in Morinville, a town within Sturgeon County, where Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced last month that it will construct a one-gigawatt data facility.
The protest occurred despite rainy weather and a long weekend, yet organizer Ben Baril, a 20-year-old business student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. "For a rainy day, on a long weekend, I wasn’t expecting this many people… but it’s awesome," Baril commented, expressing a clear stance against the data centre. "We don’t want this data centre here, and we don’t want this data centre anywhere else."
Many residents shared Baril's concerns, particularly about the environmental impact of such facilities. Jessica Tomashiro, a Sturgeon County resident, highlighted the significant demand for water and electricity that data centres require. "My water, my electricity prices are already high, so how much higher can they go?" she questioned, worried that Meta's facility, alongside others expected to be operational in Alberta by the decade's end, would further inflate utility bills.
Data centres are integral to modern technology, housing the computing power necessary for storing and distributing information, particularly in the context of artificial intelligence. Meta's projected $13 billion facility in Alberta is anticipated to be operational within the next two to three years and represents the first of its kind for the company in Canada. However, local residents have voiced concerns about the extensive use of resources, particularly water and energy, associated with the development of such facilities.
The Alberta government has initiated a "concierge" service designed to attract hyperscale developers, facilitating easier navigation through provincial regulations. Premier Danielle Smith has noted that Alberta's grid operator intends to utilize surplus energy to power Meta's data centre until a new natural gas-fired plant, the Greenlight Electricity Centre, is operational in 2030. Furthermore, Smith assures the public that the facility will consume water similar to that of a typical golf course and will incorporate a closed-loop water cooling system, minimizing local water resource extraction.
In response to the increasing concerns of the residents, Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw urged both communities and governments to engage in regulatory oversight. She acknowledged the valid concerns expressed by residents, stating, "At the heart of it is genuine care for our communities, resources and our environment — which are concerns we all share." Hnatiw emphasized the need for strong accountability frameworks to safeguard public interests.
Despite these reassurances, protesters expressed a deep mistrust towards both the government and Meta. Organizers like Baril are skeptical regarding the sustainability of energy sources for the numerous data centres planned for Alberta and the broader impacts they may have on climate change. "The increased power generation is going to just obliterate our climate because of the amount of natural gas that we’re going to be using for this," he said, alluding to a recent United Nations University report that indicated the environmental footprint of data centres now rivals that of some of the world's largest nations.
Some data centre developers argue that sustainable design choices can mitigate certain environmental impacts, like employing closed-loop cooling systems and recycling water. However, the activists remain concerned not only about resource usage but also about the economic implications of artificial intelligence, particularly regarding job security for future generations. "AI represents a threat to our careers as it’s increasingly replacing what were good-paying jobs," Baril asserted.
Protesters like Emily Lachase, who traveled from Edmonton to attend the rally, articulated their apprehensions about the pervasive integration of artificial intelligence. "It’s important for us to keep our own creativity alive and make sure that we keep using our own brains instead of always relying on AI," she noted. Meanwhile, Gerry Hofs from the advocacy group Seniors for Climate Action Now expressed her discontent with the involvement of a wealthy American corporation in local resource management, stating, "It’s an American billionaire and we do not need to be turning our resources over to somebody like that."
