Hamilton AI data centre proposal unaffected by planning tribunal decision, group involved says

A Hamilton data centre proposal is unaffected by a recent planning tribunal decision, CBC Hamilton has confirmed.

On Monday, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC) shared details about its proposal to the federal government’s AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program with CBC for the first time. 

DRAC is a federally funded not-for-profit that supports digital research infrastructure and whose members include universities, institutions and research hospitals. 

Spokesperson Vanessa Nelson said the proposal is “to build, own and operate a National AI Compute Facility” that would host AI compute infrastructure to “support the country’s top researchers.” It would also host public spaces and classrooms with educational programming for kindergarten to Grade 12 students, she said in an email.

The facility would exist on a roughly three-hectare plot of industrial land DRAC intends to buy outright from Slate Asset Management — a real estate investment company and partner in the proposal, Nelson said.

She said that parcel of land is not part of the severance request Slate made to the Committee of Adjustment on June 4. 

That means the proposal is not directly affected by the committee voting down Slate’s proposal on June 4. 

Planning application denied after protest

Slate had applied to split the 324-hectare waterfront land it owns, noting it was considering “hyperscale and enterprise data centres” as one of several uses under the former steel mill site’s industrial zoning. Overall, Slate says it is working to turn the land into a “world-class AI, advanced manufacturing, and clean infrastructure district,” called Steelport.

That application drew significant attention, resulting in hundreds of people protesting at Hamilton city hall, saying they didn’t want to make it easier for the company to advance data centre development. The  committee received over 1,600 public comments and heard from dozens of delegates. 

A Slate spokesperson declined to comment on the decision or share whether the company plans to appeal the decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal. 

Gerry Tchisler, of MHBC Planning Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, represented Slate before the Committee of Adjustment at the hearing last week and stressed that the land severance decision was separate from decisions about data centres.

He said concerns about a potential centre’s energy consumption, water usage and noise emissions are all “standard matters that have to be addressed for any industrial facility.”

Tchisler added there are “a multitude of review and permitting processes that would still have to be undertaken prior to any development of the property,” such as site plan approvals, building permits, and utility reviews.

DRAC looked at 33 possible sites across Canada

Throughout North America, the growth of AI has accelerated the development of data centres, the physical places that store, process and run data and software. Canada already has five hyperscale data centres. Another 96 are in development.

Opposition to these projects is mounting due to worries about how much land, electricity and water these massive facilities can consume, even as some developers say they can mitigate these concerns. 

An Angus Reid poll published June 1 shows 68 per cent of the respondents would oppose a large AI data centre being built within a few blocks of their home. The poll was an online survey of 1,803 Canadian adults between May 7 and 11. It had a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Last month, Nelson told CBC that because applications to the federal infrastructure program are competitive, DRAC would not share details. 

In the wake of the attention on the project, Nelson shared DRAC’s reasons for choosing Hamilton for its proposal.

She said the organization conducted a “extensive and rigorous review process” that looked at 33 sites across the country. Those sites needed to be “outside of major urban commercial or residential areas with a preference for brownfield sites with high redevelopment potential,” among other criteria.

For its Hamilton proposal, DRAC would retrofit a “largely unused industrial building,” Nelson said, taking into consideration existing infrastructure, technology and design choices to “result in an ultra-efficient facility that minimizes the environmental footprint.”

Nelson said DRAC looked for sites on which its centre would not impact the local power grid or municipal water supply. She said the proposal also includes opportunities to “re-use waste heat generated by the facility.”