{"id":725033,"date":"2026-06-09T11:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/725033\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T11:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:27:13","slug":"alberta-first-nation-in-court-over-massive-proposed-wonder-valley-ai-data-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/725033\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta First Nation in court over massive proposed \u2018Wonder Valley\u2019 AI data centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation<\/a> was in court once again, arguing again over the Alberta government\u2019s duty to consult.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This time, it\u2019s about the proposed Wonder Valley Data Centre<\/a> data centre<\/a> near the northern Alberta community.<\/p>\n

The $70-billion project backed by celebrity investor Kevin O\u2019Leary aims to become the world\u2019s largest AI data center industrial park, according to the Alberta government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of several artificial intelligence<\/a> data centres proposed in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta<\/a>, where cool temperatures eight months of the year and plenty of underground water to tap into make ideal to house massive processing systems, which need constant cooling to operate.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only a concept, but the province has already waived an environmental impact assessment for Wonder Valley.<\/p>\n

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Companies pitching the data centres have sometimes been met with an icy reception, has has been the case with Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation in the Grande Prairie region.<\/p>\n

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The First Nation said it has raised concerns with the federal government about the foreign ownership of the data centre, since O\u2019Leary Ventures Inc. is in Miami and Kevin O\u2019Leary has open ties to the Trump administration. It\u2019s also asking for a federal impact assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a massive project with significant emissions, water use and, most alarming, create a heat island in an area already ravaged by wildfire, drought, and climate change,\u201d Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation Chief Sheldon Sunshine said in a statement on June 4.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time in recent months the First Nation has been in court over similar issues.<\/p>\n

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Last month, an Alberta judge ruled in Sturgeon Lake\u2019s favour over the Stay Free Alberta separatist petition<\/a>, saying the province had a duty to consult with First Nations, who argued their treaty rights would be violated by any attempt to separate from Canada.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Environment
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJudge quashes Alberta separatist referendum in major win for First Nations\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Premier Danielle Smith rejected the judge\u2019s decision as incorrect in law and anti-democratic<\/a>, pledging the province would appeal it \u2014 something she said could take months or years.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she added a question about separating to an existing referendum<\/a> happening this upcoming October.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Alberta government lost the First Nations\u2019 separatist challenge, Premier Smith said the duty to consult applies only to major projects. This is completely false. Yet we have either not been consulted at all or have been given the lowest level of consultation on what the province itself describes as the world\u2019s largest AI data centre,\u201d Sunshine said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFrom experience, we know the province does not take the duty to consult seriously even when it comes to projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erik Bay tells explains in the video above what other concerns the First Nation has with the massive project.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from Melissa Ridgen, Global News<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation was in court once again, arguing again over the Alberta government\u2019s duty to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,10411,295,261765,250210,64,61,261766,261767],"class_list":["post-725033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-data-centre","tag-environment","tag-kevin-olearly","tag-sturgeon-lake-cree-nation","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-wonder-valley","tag-wonder-valley-data-centre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}