{"id":862045,"date":"2026-08-18T03:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T03:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/862045\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T03:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T03:22:16","slug":"ontario-should-embrace-data-centres-to-keep-information-in-canadian-hands-ford-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/862045\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario should embrace data centres to keep information in Canadian hands, Ford says"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ontario should embrace data centres to ensure its information remains in Canadian hands, Premier Doug Ford said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Data centres present an opportunity for the province and the Ontario government will only approve projects that benefit the economy, Ford said in a speech at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

“Ontario has a choice: We can build the economy of the future and ensure Canadians’ data remains in Canada or we can get left behind and risk Canadians’ data being sent to the U.S. and into the hands of President Trump,” Ford said.<\/p>\n

The premier said the worst thing Canada could do is let Trump control Canadian data.<\/p>\n

“That guy would cut us off in about three seconds and so we need to make sure we have data sovereignty in our own hands,” Ford said.<\/p>\n

The Ontario government released its Data Centre Playbook last week<\/a>, which bases data centre approvals on three pillars: economic development, data protection and digital sovereignty, and community investment and public confidence. <\/p>\n

No financial incentives for data centres, Ford says<\/p>\n

Ford said data centres will pay the full cost of their electricity usage, a requirement outlined in the new framework. In some cases, the data centres will be paying a premium for electricity, he said.<\/p>\n

“Ontario will not offer financial incentives to attract investments,” said Ford. “Instead, we will rely on our natural competitive advantages, including our clean and reliable electricity system, available land, cool climate and, most importantly, our world-class workforce.” <\/p>\n

“We will only advance projects that strengthen Ontario and Canada\u2019s control over sensitive data.”<\/p>\n

Ford said the province will only advance projects that meet its environmental standards on water consumption and noise and that bring “real benefits” and “significant investments” in local infrastructure and host communities.<\/p>\n

“We have a historic opportunity to deliver for communities across Ontario, attracting millions of dollars in tax revenue while safeguarding people\u2019s information and keeping it out of President Trump\u2019s hands,” he said.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Premier Doug Ford makes the case for building data centres in Ontario:\"\"<\/p>\n

Trump would cut off Canadians’ data centre access in ‘3 seconds,’ says Ford<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario on Monday, Premier Doug Ford made the case for building data centres in his province to protect the sovereignty of Canadians’ data. The other option is for Canadians’ data to be ‘sent to the U.S. and into the hands of President Trump,’ Ford said. ‘That would be the worst thing we could ever do.’<\/p>\n

Ford’s comments come after Mississauga and Oakville, Ont. voted for a one-year moratorium on data centres in July and August respectively. Hamilton was the first Ontario municipality to take a proposed data centre moratorium to a vote, but it failed to pass. <\/p>\n

In July, Toronto city council approved a motion calling on the city to ask the province for a framework that would address community concerns about data centres, including environmental impacts, noise and electricity infrastructure. Council said it would like this framework to be in place by the end of the first quarter of 2027.<\/p>\n

The provincial government is consulting the public about its playbook through the Environmental Registry of Ontario and the Ontario Regulatory Registry until mid-September.<\/p>\n

Pause new data centres: Ontario Green Party leader<\/p>\n

Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner called on the government at a news conference at Queen’s Park in early August to pause all new data centres until more is known about their impact on the environment, energy grid, human health and jobs.<\/p>\n

Schreiner said new data centres are being approved across the province “without community consultation or safeguards to keep people and the environment safe.”<\/p>\n

“There are also serious concerns about who actually benefits from the construction of these AI data centres,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-862045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862045","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=862045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}