Sturgeon County residents call for transparency on data centres

Some residents of Sturgeon County say there hasn't been enough public input on Meta's $13-billion AI data centre, to be built at 56111 Range Road 223 in Alberta's Industrial Heartland. "Residents deserve transparency, meaningful consultation, and careful consideration before decisions of this magnitude move forward," Maddie Hoffmann told the St. Albert Gazette. The closest properties to the site's address are a farm, about 1.2 kilometres away, and a small residential community about 4.3 kilometres away. Leo Morawski, who lives 15 kilometres away from the site, said that while he isn't necessarily opposed to the project, he expected open house forums to discuss what it entails. "You have to tell your rate-payers what's going in their backyard," Morawski told Global News. "You can't just ignore the fact and hope that they're going to live with it and be happy about it."

Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw said there was a chance for public input when the county's zoning bylaw was updated to add data centres in 2022 and when they were permitted as an industrial use in 2025. She said the project, which is already under construction, reinforces the county's role as a premier destination for industrial investment. "We are proud to welcome Meta and look forward to the long-term economic and community development opportunities this development will create for our residents and businesses," she said in a release. Meta said it will spend $60 million on local infrastructure upgrades and that the centre will generate about $250 million a year in provincial benefits through royalties, taxes, and fees. The project is expected to create 3,000 construction jobs and 300 operational jobs, and the tech giant said it will launch its Data Centre Community Action Grants for local nonprofits.

Capital Power will supply 250 megawatts of energy for the data centre until the completion of a recently approved gas-fired power plant. Katrina Ingram of Ethically Aligned AI criticized the messaging that the plant is "bring your own power" because it will run on a reallocation of power sources for up to a decade. The facility will use a closed-loop, liquid-cooling system that Meta says will minimize water use, though Ingram noted that such a system uses more energy.