{"id":796902,"date":"2026-07-12T10:50:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/796902\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T10:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:50:22","slug":"telus-ai-data-centres-could-stall-if-one-vancouver-councillor-gets-her-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/796902\/","title":{"rendered":"Telus AI Data Centres Could Stall If One Vancouver Councillor Gets Her Way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/no-ai-data-center-telus.jpg\"><img title=\"no ai data center telus | iPhone in Canada\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-448881\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/no-ai-data-center-telus.jpg\" alt=\"Protest sign reading 'NO AI DATA CENTER' with a red X behind the text and a Telus logo at the bottom, held by hands in a crowd.\" width=\"1152\" height=\"768\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iphoneincanada.ca\/2026\/05\/11\/telus-and-the-feds-agree-to-build-a-massive-ai-data-centre-in-b-c\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Telus\u2019s plans for two AI data centres in Vancouver could hit a wall<\/a>, with a city councillor pushing to pause them until the city sorts out some actual rules.<\/p>\n<p>OneCity Vancouver Councillor Lucy Maloney is bringing a motion to council on July 15 called \u201cAddressing the Risks of Digital Infrastructure,\u201d according to CTV News. If it passes, it would freeze rezoning for the proposed Telus data centre in Mount Pleasant and halt permitting for a second one downtown.<\/p>\n<p>The two sites are at 150 West Georgia St. and the former Hootsuite headquarters at 111 East 5th Ave. Vancouver already has 16 data centres, but these two sit close to homes and workplaces, which is where the pushback is coming from.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHyperscale data centres bring new risks, and need thorough evaluation,\u201d Maloney said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Telus told CTV News it\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/vancouver\/article\/wild-west-oversight-vancouver-councillor-seeks-tougher-rules-for-ai-data-centres\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">committed<\/a> to being a \u201ctransparent, responsible\u201d partner. A spokesperson said both buildings will capture and reuse waste heat, keep noise down, and cut typical water use by 90 per cent using recycled water from BC Place. The company says construction will create 1,000 jobs and deliver $9 billion in economic value to the province.<\/p>\n<p>Experts weren\u2019t kind about the current rules. \u201cRight now, Vancouver\u2019s approach is more like \u2018fire, aim, ready\u2019 than \u2018ready, aim, fire.\u2019 Without regulation, it kind of goes to the Wild West, in terms of land use,\u201d said Andy Yan, director of SFU\u2019s City Program.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iphoneincanada.ca\/2026\/05\/26\/new-telus-ai-data-centres-sparking-protests-vancouver\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">group called No AI Vancouver has been running demonstrations since the projects were announced<\/a>, with the first two drawing hundreds each. A third protest is planned later this month on July 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Telus\u2019s plans for two AI data centres in Vancouver could hit a wall, with a city councillor pushing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-796902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796902","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=796902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}