CALGARY — Premier Danielle Smith's chief of staff, Rob Anderson, claims Meta Platforms’ $13 billion AI data centre investment shuts down any claims that Alberta's referendum and the independence movement are scaring businesses away from Alberta. On Monday, Smith and the UCP government announced the approval of Meta's $13 billion investment to build a data centre in Sturgeon County, to be fueled by Alberta natural gas via a $4.6 billion private pipeline announced on July 2. The two investments, estimated to generate $250 million in annual provincial revenue, come as UCP opponents and some business owners emphatically claim that investors and business owners are frightened by the uncertainty about Alberta's future caused by the independence movement. Anderson took a victory lap on Tuesday, as Smith's government works to cool the independence movement by demonstrating how Alberta and its economy can thrive in Canada. "After this and other multi-billion dollar announcements this past week, perhaps a few folks should cool the now debunked claim that a referendum on our province’s future is scaring away investment. It’s not. In fact, the opposite is true," wrote Anderson in an X post. "We are leading the rest of the country in attracting investment by a country mile." .Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi frequently criticizes Smith for not squashing, allowing, or enabling the Alberta independence movement to move forward, citing Quebec's sovereigntist history as an example of how such uncertainty scares away investors, regardless of whether the movement is successful. "It (Montreal) was the capital of art and film and commerce and business, and then separatism happened, and 60 years of economic decline in Quebec, over 350 head offices leaving Quebec, many of them ending up right here in Calgary," said Nenshi in May. "That's what we're in for. If we don't stop this now."A Calgary Chamber of Commerce report from June expressed similar sentiments from some businesses, with 44% of survey respondents saying they intend to leave Alberta if the government begins pursuing a binding independence referendum. Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish threw further ammunition against claims of a mass business drain on Wednesday, saying that Alberta's data centre concierge is currently speaking with at least 60 proponents looking to build projects in Alberta. "Meta were the trailblazers who proved a gigawatt can be built in Alberta," said Glubish. "It can be built responsibly, in alignment with Alberta's very strict rules and regulations that we put in place.".Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan is not sold on the investment, not on Alberta's expansion into the AI world, though. He claims the expansion will ultimately take jobs away from Albertans, destroy Alberta's energy grid, and drain water supplies. Smith's government has said protections are in place to prevent some of such concerns, including requiring the data centres to provide their own energy. "As we mentioned earlier, we wanted to design a fair and competitive regulatory environment, and that's exactly what we've done. And now that every other hyperscaler in the world is going to see if Meta can do it, anybody can do it."
