Canada's Datacentre Resistance Goes National

- Map tracks 100+ projects, including ones not yet announced -

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Communities challenging the rapid expansion of datacentres across Canada have a new tool to help them fight back.

Today, Stop the Datacentre and research partners across the country, including Alberta Data Centre Watch and Small Change Fund, supported by data from Collectif Numérique Responsable et Soutenable, launched a national datacentre map, bringing funding networks together with grassroots organizers and research groups across the country.

The national research effort combines municipal records, grid requests, corporate and lobbying records, reporting, and local intel to find early-stage projects and track them. It includes projects that have barely entered the public record, in some cases before companies have formally announced them.

"This is the map of the resistance and an early warning system." said Nick Tsergas, founder of Stop the Datacentre. “We’re trying to see projects coming before communities are told they’re coming. It’s basically the NORAD of datacentre maps."

Datacentre proposals are landing across Canada without binding rules designed with AI facilities in mind. Stop the Datacentre is calling for a moratorium on developments until those rules are in place.

Tracked projects include 20.5 gigawatts of datacentre electrical capacity currently in the proposal pipeline. If built, the facilities on the map would consume nearly as much electricity as the entire province of Ontario does in a year.

“People deserve to know what is coming their way, and the impacts it will have on their community,” said Burkhard Mausberg, president of the Small Change Fund. “We helped make this map to boost communities’ capacity to oppose new datacentres.”

“We brought together grassroots networks from across Canada to ground-truth the data underlying this map. Local researchers are constantly adding information that national datasets miss,” says Tsergas.

The map also shows which municipalities are pausing or regulating datacentres. Canadians are invited to contribute local information. Those wanting to support this ongoing work can donate.