As the Rural Municipality of Sherwood’s council voted Thursday to approve zoning changes allowing Bell Canada to expand its massive AI data centre project in Saskatchewan, a small group of protesters was gathered outside.
Police and private security were also there.
The rezoning clears away a final regulatory hurdle for the telecom giant in its plan to construct a 1.2-gigawatt facility outside Regina.
Dan Rink, president of AI infrastructure and strategy for Bell Canada, attended the meeting and said he wanted to clear up misconceptions.
“This data centre is not on George Gordon reserve land,” Rink said, referring to the George Gordon First Nation’s stated objections to the project.
“It’s on private land. It’s not next to Crown land and it’s on land that’s been farmed for the last 150 years continuously,” Rink said.
He highlighted the job opportunities the company and the province envision from the development.
“We continue to invest in this project upwards of $2 billion directly with our clients in total, over $12 billion being invested in the first phase alone and $50 billion in the expansion, which is one of the largest projects in Canadian history, and that there are … highly paid jobs on site right now,” Rink said.
Bell will pay for all water used by the data centre, he said.
“We have a City of Regina water connection that is for our staff for drinking water, for fire suppression. The facility itself, when we say ‘closed loop,’ like it’s a fully welded closed system, that water doesn’t go out, it doesn’t go into drainage.”
Rink said Bell Canada has chosen to build its data centres in a way that is community-friendly across the country.
“So, we have acoustical engineers who engineer every aspect of the project. We studied the land, studied the equipment, we invested in enclosures, in sound abatement, in sound walls, in berms and setbacks,” he said.
Police and private security officers outside the RM of Sherwood’s office. (Aliyah Marko-Omene/CBC)
Police and security guards were at the doors of the RM office, telling demonstrators that only 15 people could be let inside.
Coun. Judy Harwood said it was for safety reasons.
“[I] just want to say we had one meeting here, but the noise, [like] banging on our windows, the noise outside, the horns honking, we had to stop our meeting. So who benefits from that?” she said.
Harwood described another incident when people stormed into the council’s chambers.
“I value the chambers very much, to me as holy ground almost. But they came into our chambers and did we feel threatened? Maybe, maybe we did. Maybe there were some threats there. So if people are intimidated by the police, we were also intimidated,” she said.
Four members of the RM council were appointed by the provincial government only 10 days before council approved development of the data centre earlier this year. They were brought in to replace the reeve and three council members who abruptly resigned in March without explanation.
At that point, the centre was only to be a 300-megawatt facility.
Coun. Mitch Huber, one of the council members appointed by the province, said the appointments had nothing to do with the data centre.
“Never once have I been prompted or suggested that we had to do anything. I would suggest we were put here due to our experience as municipal leaders over the last many years,” he said.
No one from the province was made available Thursday to answer questions on the data centre.
Dilynn Kehler attended the protest with her sons. (Aliyah Marko-Omene/CBC)
Dilynn Kehler, a member of a group called No Data Centres on Treaty Land, said she and her sons attended the Thursday protest to voice their opinions and honour traditional teachings.
“Indigenous people need to plan for our future generations because that’s what’s ingrained in our culture. We are only loaned the land, we are only here at the expense of our future generations,” Kehler said.
“So, whatever we do now, we need to think about how that’s going to impact the people. That’s the basis of what the treaties were made from. That’s how our ancestors thought of us.”
Kehler, a member of George Gordon First Nation, said Bell Canada has been secretive about the project and not entirely transparent with George Gordon members.
“We have done Freedom of Information Act requests which have been blacked out. We haven’t got any information about the water cooling system, where the water is coming from or where it’s going,” she said.
Bell wants people to trust that “a for-profit corporation is going to have our best interests at heart, and I just don’t believe it,” she added.
Bell has said an environmental assessment will be made public with the project’s next expansion phase.
Nicholas Fuzesy said he thinks Bell Canada’s goal is to build the AI data centre first, then convince people it was a good idea. (Richard Agecoutay/CBC)
Protester Nicholas Fuzesy said he’s utterly against the project.
“This is pure Bell’s will over the will of the people. I think this is something Bell wanted to do. I think they picked the place with, I think the least regulation and the least pushback they think they would get,” Fuzesy said.
“I think their goal was to do it first and then convince people afterwards that it was a good idea.”
The RM is due to hold an election for reeve and council positions on Nov. 9.
