Nearly two dozen AI hyperscalers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, have agreed to the federal government’s new framework—which asks, but does not compel—companies to follow responsible development guidelines for building data centres in Canada.
“We expect projects to pay the costs they create, protect local resources, [and] deliver lasting value to Canadians.”
AI Minister Evan Solomon
AI Minister Evan Solomon announced the framework and its signatories at an event in Markham, Ont. on Thursday morning. Canada’s Responsible Data Centre Development Principles are intended to support the domestic data centre buildout the federal government is pursuing as part of its AI strategy, while addressing public concerns about higher water use, electricity bills, and other local impacts.
In a statement, Solomon said that Canada is building the digital infrastructure needed to lead in the age of AI, grow its economy, and strengthen its sovereignty, but “how we build matters.”
“We want companies to come to Canada and invest, and build and grow here; we want investment in this country,” Solomon said at the event. “We expect projects to pay the costs they create, protect local resources, deliver lasting value to Canadians, grow and build responsibly and transparently.”
The framework includes five expectations:
- Data centre development should create lasting local benefits. Solomon said this can include jobs, skills training, research partnerships, and access to compute;
- Data centres should not shift electricity costs to Canadians. This means data centre operators must pay for the costs they create, protect grid reliability, and, where required, contribute to new supply, Solomon said;
- Data centres should minimize water use and environmental impacts. Operators must protect local fresh water, and priority should be given to efficient projects, like those with closed-loop cooling systems or waste heat recovery;
- Data centre developers should be transparent about local impacts. Solomon said local approval processes must be respected, and that local residents should receive independently verifiable information about noise, emissions, and power and water use;
- Data centre developments should bring strategic value to Canada. Projects must create clear and lasting benefits to Canada, including investment, supply chain participation, and compute capacity.
At the event, Solomon reiterated that this is not a new federal review process, and that the framework doesn’t step on the toes of provincial and municipal authority over buildouts. Instead, it acts as a “tool” for local authorities to hold data centre operators to account. The framework does not come with specific, binding definitions, or any associated penalties for not following it.
The framework has secured 23 signatories, including the largest AI companies and hyperscalers building data centres in Canada. This includes Amazon Web Services, Bell, Telus, OVHCloud, Hypertec, ThinkOn, and Beacon Data Centres. Other big tech companies that agreed included Canada’s leading LLM developer, Cohere, as well as Microsoft and Meta. Meta is already planning to build Canada’s largest data centre development in Alberta.
When asked whether the federal government would hold those signatories to account, Solomon said the government’s intention here was just to develop a basic framework, and that provincial regulators can develop rules with “more legislative teeth.”
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The federal framework follows similar initiatives at the provincial level, including Ontario and Alberta, which have both put forward rules intended to require data centre projects to bear the full cost for their electricity use.
While many companies that signed on to the framework are looking to strengthen their compute capabilities in Canada—including Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI—they are having a hard time selling the buildout to the public. Angus Reid Institute polling shows more than two-thirds of Canadians oppose having data centres built near their homes. This has led to firms like Anthropic hiring data centre community engagement managers to “coordinate charitable giving, community investment, and economic development commitments” to woo the markets they hope to bring “gigawatts of compute” to.
At the event, Solomon conceded that the public has “good questions” about the data centre buildout, particularly around how it benefits them and impacts their resources, and hopes the framework will result in more public trust in the “digital infrastructure of the future.”
“This is the choice we have as Canadians,” Solomon said. “If we don’t build the infrastructure of the future here, we will have to buy it from somewhere else; and if we don’t innovate here, we will rent that from someone else; and if we don’t make the rules here, we will have to follow someone else’s.”
Feature image courtesy Web Summit.