EDMONTON — Alberta's technology and finance minister, Nate Glubish, was met with mixed reactions for a second consecutive night on Thursday when speaking about AI data centres at a town hall in Sturgeon County, showing that, despite the UCP's efforts to educate the public, many Albertans still have fears. According to a Canadian Press article, Glubish faced a contentious crowd on Thursday in Redwater, as many residents expressed concerns about the amount of water and power required by the recently announced 1,800-megawatt Meta Platforms AI data centre approved for the county. Sturgeon County residents have been vocal about their concerns surrounding the data centre, and they are not alone, as constituencies across the province have spoken against and blocked projects. The three major concerns include both power and water and the amount of noise generated by the facilities..The UCP have made a push over recent weeks to try and mitigate the concerns, including Glubish's Thursday town hall, as well as one in Lacombe on Tuesday, and a virtual one with both the minister and Premier Danielle Smith scheduled for Aug. 27. Smith also attempted to address six common concerns in a video. "I think folks are right to have concerns because they've seen examples in other jurisdictions where folks rushed in, they didn't do their due diligence, they didn't structure the deal well, and they provided subsidies," said Glubish in an interview with the Western Standard on July 31. Glubish said the UCP government took over two years to "do the homework" and create an AI data centre regulatory framework that will decrease the risk of such negative examples happening in Alberta. Their efforts include requiring data centres to provide their own power, calculating the safest amount of energy from Alberta's grid that could be allocated to facilities, requiring water permits, and establishing noise and distance regulations to protect against noise. "We're doing it differently in Alberta," Glubish said. "We didn't want to be first. We wanted to be the smartest.".Headlines were made recently as a pair of proposed projects faced setbacks, including the Alberta Utilities Commission's Monday denial of an application to build a natural gas power plant to supply a data centre bordering the town of Olds. Critics of Alberta's data centre strategy celebrated the win as a way to block what they believe is an "open door" policy from the UCP, built without proper consultation or protections. Conversely, the UCP have said the results show that the regulatory process and safeguards are working as intended. “Alberta is proving that we have built a strong regulatory framework for AI data centres that protects our communities, electricity grid, and environment while responsibly growing an AI data centre industry capable of powering our province into the future," reads a statement from the Ministry of Affordability and Utilities sent to the Western Standard on Tuesday. “While our government does not weigh in on decisions issued by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), decisions like this prove that our framework is working and our regulatory bodies are doing their job to protect the interests of Albertans and our communities. We respect the AUC’s decision and the comprehensive regulatory process that informed it.”
