New Brunswickers protest proposed data centre

Demonstrators gathered outside the New Brunswick legislature to protest a proposed data centre.

Dozens of New Brunswick residents marched around the front of the province’s legislative building on Thursday, protesting a proposed data centre in Spruce Lake Industrial Park.

The project is being put forward by Texas-based VoltaGrid LLC, and Beacon AI Centres, which operates out of Calgary.

Saint John resident Sarah Nelson organized the protest to occur on the same day as a Legislative debate on a Green party motion to put a temporary moratorium on the development of data centres in New Brunswick.

“We’re hoping to get to have a conversation and we want to end the secrecy with what’s been going on in regard to planning the centre and having it go forward without being consulted,” she said.

Fredericton resident Melanie Pelletier attended the protest and said she has concerns about the environmental impacts of the centre.

“I think it’s really important that we protect the land and we keep people safe,” she said.

The protest also has the support of the Green Party of New Brunswick’s deputy leader Megan Mitton, who introduced the motion to put a moratorium on data centres.

“This is unacceptable, this is shortsighted, harmful to our health, harmful to our climate, and I have concerns about electricity usage and cost,” she said in a scrum on Thursday.

Her proposed motion would put a moratorium on building data centres until the province enacts legislation ensuring the centres won’t increase electricity costs, harm communities or the environment.

Written by CTV News Atlantic’s Anna Mandin

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