The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Mississauga council voted unanimously Wednesday to put a one-year freeze on new datacentre projects. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that the pause allows lawmakers to explore potential guardrails for new datacentres amid residents' concerns about energy, water and noise impacts "We've heard your voice loud and clear," Martin Reid, the councillor who sponsored the moratorium, said during Wednesday's council meeting. Municipalities are at the forefront of talks on managing new datacentre projects emerging across Ontario. While the province has hosted datacentres for cloud storage and financial transactions, the artificial-intelligence boom has increased the demand for energy-intensive projects. The province and Ottawa support the datacentre expansion to strengthen control over the digital economy and attract investment. However, critics argue that cities lack guidance and enforceable standards. Mississauga's pause applies to datacentres with energy demands more than 10 megawatts, or enough electricity to power about 10,000 homes. Under pressure from municipalities, Ontario released last month a draft "playbook" for new datacentre projects.