Ottawa ‘not responsible’ for regulating AI data centre electricity use: minister

The federal government is “not responsible” for power regulation and cannot regulate electricity usage by AI data centres, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told a Senate committee on Thursday.

Solomon spoke to the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on Thursday, where he was asked about power usage by data centres Canada.

While the memoranda of understanding can require companies to federal standards and “principles of responsible use,” Solomon said the federal government cannot regulate power usage by AI data centres.

“The federal government is not responsible for power. That is the purvey of provincial regulators. So, we can’t put federal obligations on the power regulation,” he said, adding that provinces like Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia are in the process of creating their own data centre laws.

Information technology and electricity grids are both considered critical infrastructure by the federal government, giving Public Safety Canada the ability to “manage risks and reduce vulnerabilities,” according to the National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure.

Doubling the capacity of Canada’s energy grid was “absolutely critical” to rolling out Canada’s AI strategy, Solomon said.

“We work very closely with best practices around the world to develop very high standards on water use, energy use, investment in the community, strategic importance, consultation, and most importantly, transparency on the promises so you can actually hold them to account,” he said.

Solomon was also asked how many data centres Canada was looking to build.

“We received proposals for… over 160,” he said.

While large data centre projects will require around 100 megawatts of power per building, there “may be some smaller ones” as well, he added.

“We have MOUs with about four (data center companies) so far,” he said.

Ottawa is “supporting the building of Canadian data that are Canadian-owned,” Solomon said, however, some major projects in Canada are being helmed by U.S. tech giants.

A company pursuing a wind and hydrogen development in Nova Scotia says it has plans for a $10-billion AI data centre in Cape Breton that it describes as the largest private investment in provincial history.

EverWind Fuels announced last week that U.S. AI company Anthropic has signed a 20-year lease for a 18,600-square metre data centre in Point Tupper, N.S., that would draw 95 megawatts of electricity during its first phase.

The data centre is scheduled to come online late next year. A 325-megawatt expansion is expected in mid-2028, which would bring the development’s total energy demand to 420 megawatts, the company said.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said the data centre project was a major vote of confidence in the rural area about 200 kilometres east of Halifax. He said Canada does not have enough secure data infrastructure to meet the requirements of its businesses, governments and health-care institutions.

Data centres are typically massive operations that require immense amounts of electricity to run and cool off computer servers.

Water from nearby Landrie Lake will be used to cool the Point Tupper data centre’s servers, and the company stressed it will safeguard the water supply.

EverWind said the cooling system will be closed-loop, similar to a car’s radiator, with cooling fluid recycled or disposed of off site, not in local waterways. The system will use an average of 100,000 litres of water per day in the first phase, which EverWind said is about the same as a large shopping mall.

That will expand to an average draw of 500,000 litre per day when the expansion is complete, about one per cent of the lake’s safe daily yield of 34 million litres.

–with files from Canadian Press