Statement from Stephen Legault in Response to the Federal Government’s New Data Centre Principles

The federal government’s newly released Responsible Data Centre Development Principles lays out a starting foundation for Canada’s growing AI industry but clear rules are needed to prevent them from becoming major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Loopholes must be closed through regulation, not just principles. 

In Alberta alone, there are 30 proposed data centres which, if built, could double the province’s electricity demand, driving up costs for consumers already struggling with high energy prices, and adding at least 24 megatonnes of CO₂e in annual emissions, equivalent to putting five million more cars on the province’s roads.

Voluntary principles alone will not slow this race to build. Environmental Defence is calling on federal and provincial governments to enact binding regulations that prohibit powering data centres with methane (natural) gas, and instead require these facilities to run on renewable energy — wind, solar, geothermal, and battery storage. 

Background 

In Canada, jurisdiction over AI data centres is shared between the federal, provincial and municipal governments. The Globe and Mail has previously reported that, the federal principles are “meant to ‘complement existing provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous regulatory processes by setting a national recognized baseline.’” 

Gas is the default power source, not a choice made under scrutiny. Alberta’s own Technology and Innovation Minister has said natural gas is “really the only option for the next three to five years,” and the province’s data-centre strategy explicitly promotes “bring-your-own-power” gas plants. Nearly every large proposal (Synapse/Olds, Wonder Valley, Tourmaline/Yellowhead, Meta/Greenlight) is paired with a new gas plant, several in the 1-9 GW range — locking in decades of emissions just as the province should be decarbonizing its grid.

Environmental reviews are being skipped. Wonder Valley and the original Synapse Olds filing both bypassed a full provincial Environmental Impact Assessment; Mihta Askiy and the Beacon Heartland project were exempted from federal Impact Assessment Act review. The province’s own AI Data Centre policy framework, due under the Canada-Alberta MOU by July 1, 2026, still is not finalized — approvals are outpacing the rules meant to govern them.

Alberta’s Bill 8 puts a new fee on large data centres — but only ones connected to the public power grid. That leaves a loophole: the biggest projects can dodge the fee simply by building their own gas-powered electricity plants instead. On top of that, towns like Olds would have had to pay for water and infrastructure upgrades themselves — costs that everyday ratepayers may end up covering, not the developers building the data centres. 

Ontario’s Data Centre Playbook contemplates incentivising companies to create their own power as well, which may mean more gas plants, unless rules discourage it.