A massive technological expansion is coming to Saskatchewan after the Rural Municipality of Sherwood council voted unanimously Monday to greenlight a development agreement for a Bell AI data centre.
The 300-megawatt facility is a $12 billion investment in the region, though the approval took place amidst vocal opposition from nearly 100 protesters gathered outside the municipal office. Concerns over transparency and environmental impacts, such as noise and power grid pressure, dominated the conversation, according to CTV News.
Inside the meeting, which had restricted seating, Interim Reeve Ray Orb championed the project as a major win. “It’s in our lives right now, especially in agriculture and health care, and in the work municipalities do it’s very important to us. Data sovereignty is very important. We have a good opportunity here to build something and to us, it’s a success story for the province,” Orb told reporters.
Addressing fears regarding water consumption, Bell confirmed the site will use a closed-loop system with technical water recycled every decade.
“All of the facilities we build don’t use water,” explained Dan Rink, president of AI Fabric for Bell Canada. “They all use closed loop systems, fully closed loop system. No evaporative cooling at all so the system gets filled with technical water. That water is used for around ten years before it’s fully recycled and refilled.”
However, residents remain skeptical. “If the data centre is built we’ll protest against it because we know the harm that data centres have done to cities in the U.S.,” said local resident Nicholas Fruzesy.
To bridge the communication gap, the RM promised to provide ongoing project updates via its official website.
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