A suggested halt on new, energy-intensive data centres in Hamilton made progress on Tuesday, marking another step in a rising resistance to Canada’s expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
A planning committee voted to forward the proposed moratorium plan to Hamilton’s city council for a decision at a future meeting. The motion introduced by Coun. Nrinder Nann would direct staff to create a moratorium, positioning it as an opportunity for the city to assess data centre impacts and formulate guidelines for their future development.
During Tuesday’s committee gathering, numerous residents expressed support for a moratorium.
“When decisions of this scale are about to be made – choices that affect electric grids, pollute water and air, and alter neighborhoods – what role should local residents and their elected representatives play? That’s the question before you today,” stated Nick Tsergas, a Hamilton health journalist who established a website aimed at informing the community about the data centre opposition.
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“If we get it right, cities across Canada will have a model to follow. If we get it wrong, they will inherit our mistake.”
Hamilton has become a focal point in Canada’s discussion about future AI infrastructure. A large data centre campus proposal on the harbourfront-an area historically influenced by the city’s steel industry-has prompted strong objections from local residents as the federal government pushes an AI strategy that supports this sector.
A private investment firm is behind Hamilton’s plan to redevelop approximately three square kilometers of harbourfront into a “digital and industrial” hub known as Steelport. Slate Asset Management’s idea to allocate around one-fourth of that land for developing a potential data centre campus was rejected by a city committee earlier this month after hundreds of Hamiltonians voiced their concerns against it.
Residents who spoke on Tuesday expressed worries that massive data centres could overload the electricity grid and raise utility costs. Some mentioned they wouldn’t support data centres powering AI models that jeopardize jobs and exploit artists’ work without consent. Others feared constant noise, water contamination, and heat emitted from a data centre would primarily impact communities already carrying an unfair share of Hamilton’s industrial load.
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Anne Pasek, a researcher from Trent University who supported Tuesday’s motion, stated that implementing a moratorium in Hamilton would be “groundbreaking”.
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“To my knowledge, they would be the first in Canada to impose such a moratorium while committing to establish city-determined regulatory frameworks for this type of infrastructure,” said Pasek, an associate professor studying climate effects caused by the tech industry in an interview.
She noted that future municipal regulations regarding data centres could enforce updated noise and water pollution standards while keeping energy requirements manageable.
“Part of why data centres have faced significant backlash is due to industry opacity and unclear guidance from regulatory authorities. I believe cities are uniquely positioned to bridge that democratic gap and elevate this conversation,” she told the committee.
The motion passed on Tuesday does not specify any timeline for a moratorium nor does it exempt certain sizes of data centres. The vast majority of over 200 written submissions received by the committee were supportive of this initiative.
As residents urged councillors for action now, developers behind the proposed harbourfront data centre campus encouraged quick collaboration with “urgency” to seize what they called “this generational opportunity.”
<p slate’s written submission argued its Steelport hub could repurpose existing energy infrastructure at its location while emphasizing its proximity within Canada’s major population center would allow low latency transfer times appealing clients like universities and financial institutions. A federally funded non-profit organization focused on meeting computational needs for university researchers has shown interest in joining part of this proposed campus project.
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“It is not an exaggeration to state that Hamilton risks losing a strategic opportunity to be at the forefront of the next major Canadian industry-and demonstrating how responsibly developed data centres can benefit surrounding communities,” read Slate’s submission signed by both managing director and vice-president.
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No Canadian city has yet passed any moratoriums specifically relatedto datacenters; however, a seriesof similar pauseshave been enactedin several U. S. citiesincluding Seattleearlierthismonth.
In Canada , there are currentlyfivehyperscaledatacentreswithatleast50 MWofenergy capacityaccordingtoastudyby York Universityresearchersin April. Therearealso dozensmoreinthedevelopmentpipelineprimarilylocatedin Alberta.
In Ontario, theenergygridmanagerreportedamajor increaseinrequestsforconnectionsfromsuchdatacentres.
Asoflastmonth , around6000MWofdata-centre-relatedrequestsremainedinthequeueaccordingto The Canadian Pressinterviewwiththe Independent Energy Systems Operator. Itdidnotclarifyhowmanyprojectscomprisedthat6000MWequivalenttotheenergyneedsforaboutfive milliontosixmillionhomes. Itnotedmany projectsareintheeearlyphasesandthesefigurescanfluctuatebasedonapplicationsreceivedaswellasprojectprogress orwithdrawals.
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