A majority of Canadians favour limiting the development of large data centres in their provinces, citing concerns over water consumption, electricity costs, and the benefits flowing to large tech firms.
What happened
A recent Angus Reid poll found that 64% of Canadians want their provincial governments to limit large data centre development, while 18% say their governments should encourage building more such infrastructure. The remaining 18% are unsure or can't say on the issue.
The poll, conducted online from September 8 to 16 among 4,417 randomly selected adults, also found that Manitoba and the Atlantic Canada provinces have the strongest opposition to data centre development, with 72% of residents saying their governments should limit building or proposing more data centres.
The results come as Ottawa and several provincial governments seek to expand Canada's AI capacity and computing infrastructure, with initiatives such as the federal government's Sovereign AI Compute Strategy and a proposed large-scale AI data centre project in British Columbia.
Among the respondents who support limiting data centres, 51% cited high water usage as their top concern, 38% expressed worry that large data centres would lead to higher electricity costs, and 34% said they are concerned that benefits would flow primarily to large technology companies instead of local communities.
