The City of Mississauga will vote on Wednesday on whether to temporarily halt the development of local AI data centres.
For weeks, residents have been protesting a proposal to construct a 220,000 sq. ft. new data facility at Tenth Line West in the Meadowvale Business Park, right by Lisgar Go Station. Therefore, city councillors will gather on July 29 to vote on a potential one-year freeze on AI data centres to provide the government with the opportunity to conduct a comprehensive study into the initiative. If approved, the pause would apply to all AI data centres in the city and could be extended for an additional year.
More information on attending the meeting, including virtual viewing, can be found on the city’s website. A dedicated website petitioning against the construction of the AI data centres has also been set up.
This comes amid widespread public outcry around the world as more jurisdictions attempt to install AI data centres. In particular, there are concerns over the environmental impacts of data centres, with research showing that mid-sized centres can consume as much water as a small town, while larger facilities can require up to five million gallons (about 19 million litres) every day. Further, companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft have admitted that they are now emitting much more greenhouse gas due to their massive data centre networks. And that’s not even getting into other environmental impacts, like potential water poisoning.
Most recently, we’ve seen significant controversy in Alberta after Meta announced plans to build its largest AI data centre outside of the U.S. in the province. This comes amid wider criticism against the Carney government for cutting back on environmental initiatives, especially as wildfires have raged across Canada.
Image credit: Microsoft
