Vocal opposition turns out for AI data centre town hall in Grande Prairie

“I was actually really happy with the questions that were asked, like a lot of really insightful technology questions, and policy-related questions I thought were really interesting.”

Another attendee, Devon, who did not want to give her last name, does not think provincial officials answered any of the questions asked.

“They gave us a word salad, and they actually aren’t giving us a time to consent.”

“I asked a question asking how are we going to have the opportunity to say no, and they said email your MLA, and we will say yes or no eventually, so there’s no vote for it.”

Devon says the government deciding on centres is not consent, and a vote could have been part of the Oct. 19 ballot.

Another attendee, Sandy, who also did not want to give her last name, says she is not satisfied with what she heard.

“Danielle Smith gets on there and says, ‘ Oh, it’ll be good for our social programs and stuff,’ and now we’re going through with the two-tier healthcare and taking away from the disabled and all of that.”

“If this is supposed to save the world, save Alberta, then why are we doing this?”

Glubish was also asked why centres have to draw water every year if a closed-loop system is used for cooling.

“The closed-loop systems being used in this type of infrastructure now are designed to last for the life of the project. They’re not being refilled every single year.”

Glubish was also asked what safeguards are in place for data centres before and after construction, given problems with orphan oil and gas wells and some energy companies not paying property taxes.

“The Premier and our government care deeply about the polluter-pay principle. If you are causing a problem, you should be (required) to clean it up.”

“If you develop infrastructure and you incur an obligation like (a) property tax obligation, you should be on the hook for that.”

Glubish was also asked why consultations are only taking place now.

He says, “There are multiple stages of consultation for something like this,” and 13 years of work has gone into the Greenview Industrial Gateway.

“The residents of (the MD of) Greenview would be the ones that were to have been notified of that.”

” I don’t get to pick what happens up in Grande Prairie when it comes to municipal zoning. It’s the residents of Greenview who were represented by their council and reeve.”

There was a lot of yelling from the crowd while Glubish was giving his answer.

A couple of people also asked about Meta, with one person asking if the social media company could be trusted.

Meta is planning to build a data centre close to Edmonton.

Glubish stressed that the Wonder Valley project in the Greenview Industrial Gateway has not yet been approved.

O’Leary Ventures co-founder and CEO Paul Palandjin said at a meeting in Grovedale in April that Wonder Valley would use less than six million cubic metres of water every year.

The meeting was the last in a series of town halls, three in-person and one virtual, held across Alberta.

by Curtis Galbraith