Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled the province’s fresh data center framework on Thursday, emphasizing the importance of keeping Canadians’ data within the country. The framework’s core principles revolve around economic growth, data security and sovereignty, and community investment to boost public trust.
During the announcement in Guelph, Ford highlighted the significance of the new data center playbook in driving future economic development, creating job opportunities, and ensuring compliance with regulations. The framework mandates that data centers cover their entire electricity consumption costs, encouraging self-sufficient power generation projects and introducing a higher rate class for large new data centers to prevent additional burdens on Ontario families.
Ford also emphasized that the province will not provide financial incentives to attract investments. The framework is positioned as a critical enabler of Ontario’s artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, projected to bring about $122 billion in economic growth by 2035 and generate 17,000 new jobs annually.
The announcement comes amid discussions in various municipalities across the province regarding moratoriums on data centers. Oakville recently voted to enact a one-year moratorium, while Mississauga is set to vote on a similar measure in September.
Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner recently called for a halt on new data centers, expressing concerns about corporations benefiting from local resources at the expense of Ontario communities. Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s minister of economic development, assured that priority will be given to data centers employing closed-loop water systems to minimize water consumption.
Despite the government’s efforts, Schreiner criticized the playbook for lacking concrete regulations, urging for stronger measures to protect communities from potential drawbacks of data centers. He stressed the importance of community control over tech corporations, advocating for a moratorium until robust regulations are in place.
In a separate development, Coun. Colleen James initiated a motion for the Region of Waterloo council to prepare an information report on data center development and its impacts. The report aims to provide insights into the economic and environmental implications of data center expansion and is expected to be completed early next year.