CityNews met with Reid on Monday at the site of what he said would be the first massive, hyperscale data centre in the community. <\/p>\n
Located on Tenth Line west of Winston Churchill Boulevard and Highway 401 and near Lisgar GO station, the site is nestled next to a house, a church, greenspace and an existing warehouse. But just hundreds of metres away, there\u2019s a large shopping centre along with current and proposed housing subdivisions.<\/p>\n
When speaking with residents, Reid said he\u2019s heard examples raised of cities in the U.S. involving excessive water and electricity consumption. Without large-scale examples in the GTA, he said it leaves a lot of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still so many questions that need to be answered, and until we have a fulsome understanding of it this is not something that I feel that I can responsibly support,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not sure what the tenant is going to be using it for, so there are worst-case scenarios that we read, there are totally safe examples that we read and the reality is that we\u2019re somewhere in the middle with no clear answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s do our homework first before we say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the absence of detailed and concrete information on the impacts to residential communities and local infrastructure, Reid said he wanted to see a pause put in place \u2014 something he added he\u2019s heard some support for from fellow council members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not reading this as saying this is the same as Wichita, Utah, somewhere where they\u2019re taking away all the water from our water table, and there\u2019s going to be this massive hum all night long,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m concerned about all of those extreme examples, but I haven\u2019t got any certainty that it\u2019s not going to be that. And until I\u2019m certain that it\u2019s not going to be that, there\u2019s no way that you\u2019ll ever get a yes out of me on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
CityNews contacted Prologis, the owner of the site, Monday afternoon to ask about Reid\u2019s notice of motion and overall concerns, but didn\u2019t receive a response by the time of publication. This story will be updated if a response is received.<\/p>\n
Hamilton city council recently saw vocal opposition to a proposed data centre<\/a> and despite an earlier move to consider a moratorium, that move was later voted down<\/a> amid concerns over a potential legal battle and lost investment.<\/p>\n When Toronto council meets this week, two councillors are bringing forward motions on AI data centres in their wards. Coun. Vincent Crisanti wants to formally ask for a meeting with an applicant<\/a> for a facility on Lowes Place near Islington Avenue and Highway 401 to discuss potentially adding additional mitigation measures.<\/p>\n Coun. Parthi Kandavel is moving a motion<\/a> calling for a pause and additional information on a large-scale data centre proposed by Stack Infrastructure at the corner of Birchmount Road and Danforth Avenue, as well as changes to processes for similar applications.<\/p>\n \u201cConcerns are about water impact, pressure, strain on the energy grid, and noise levels are important concerns to be addressed before final approvals,\u201d he told CityNews, noting the proposed facility is in the middle of an established residential community.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that this is a permitted land use, we\u2019re asking for this application before they go to building permits that it\u2019s aligned with all the research and work being done by our senior staff on the policy on how to process and the framework around data centres in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Kandavel said he\u2019s cognizant of the need for AI data centres to be operated in Canada as part of a broader push for \u201cdata sovereignty,\u201d but added he and others are looking for \u201cthoughtful consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n A representative with Stack told CityNews in a statement that the company has been working with the City of Toronto since 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been operating in the community since 2023, and the expansion project has undergone extensive technical review and includes measures to address noise and limit water use through a closed-loop cooling system,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n \u201cFurthermore, Stack is directly funding the required electrical distribution upgrades to help protect ratepayers. We remain committed to meeting all applicable requirements and being a responsible long-term partner in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n CityNews asked Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow about the concerns involving the two projects. She said she\u2019s awaiting the results of a broader City staff report on artificial intelligence usage and AI data centres.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it is just better services, it\u2019s one thing. If it displaces people and turns everything upside down, it\u2019s a very different issue and there has to be ethical guardrails and that for me is even more important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Both Reid and Kandavel said they would like the Ontario government to take the lead on responding to concerns over AI data centres since municipalities across the province are receiving applications.<\/p>\n In a statement to CityNews, a spokesperson for Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli said investments must bring \u201clasting prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo digital infrastructure project will proceed unless it contributes to the local economy and the company commits to paying the full cost of energy,\u201d spokesperson Gianpiero Colangelo wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cAs part of the actions taken to protect families and ratepayers, our government has passed legislation that puts in place clear guardrails and gives Ontario the authority to prevent projects from connecting to the grid if they fail to meet these expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement didn\u2019t elaborate on the \u201cclear guardrails\u201d or the threshold needed for action by the government.<\/p>\n How-Sen Chong, a climate campaigner with the Toronto Environmental Alliance<\/a>, said he would like to see a pause on AI data centres. He pointed to examples of facilities reliant on power derived from fossil fuels that have high energy and water use.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of our planning processes aren\u2019t built for this kind of project yet and so many of these projects, especially the worst-performing ones, are taking advantage of the newness of this to try to put in these projects that can have very serious environmental effects,\u201d Chong said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the data centres that\u2019s being proposed right now is expected to use up to 50 megawatts of electricity \u2014 that\u2019s equivalent of every single building in East York.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to make sure that if these projects are going to go through, that the major environmental impacts are understood before they\u2019re done because we live in a city of very strong communities that also need to share a lot of these resources as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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