The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that landowners in Alberta are getting caught up in a race to capitalize on demand for data centres. A four-bylined item led by Kate Helmore says that Alberta launched its data-centre strategy in late 2024, promising a "concierge service" to help projects come to fruition, and capture $100-billion of investment within five years. It is off to a strong start. In total, there are 20 active data centres in Alberta, with another 149 announced and four under construction. One player, Beacon Data Centers Inc., is planning two power plants with co-located data centres: one in Indus near Calgary, and the other in Sturgeon county, northeast of Edmonton. In July, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Meta Platforms would build a $13-billion data centre campus just outside Edmonton, close to the Beacon site. The "historic win" was one of the largest private-sector investments in Canadian history, Ms. Smith declared. But the backlash against data centres across North America has been fierce, and Alberta is not immune. "People are just feeling so up against the wall," said farmer Creig Antliff, who lives near Indus and would be affected by the planned power plant and data centre.
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