Nova Scotia’s official Opposition leader called on Tuesday for an emergency sitting of the legislature about the province’s new AI data centre proposed for the EverWind Fuels property in Point Tupper, N.S. NDP leader Claudia Chender said she is looking for more than promises when it comes to addressing potential impacts on water and people’s power bills. “If those commitments are not true then they are not really worth it,” Chender said at a news conference in Halifax. “I was going to say that they’re not worth the paper they’re written on, but they’re not written on paper.” Chender said she has heard from thousands of Nova Scotians who oppose the $10 billion megaproject. However, Richmond County warden Lois Landry feels the potential for jobs and the boost to local and provincial economies outweigh the concerns that have been raised, some of which she says are unfounded. “We would really need good reasons to say we are not in favour and we are very encouraged with some of the initial information we are hearing,” Landry said of the information given about the project by the Nova Scotia government and EverWind Fuels. Landry said while she has gotten plenty of questions from residents about water and power - not to mention concerns about AI itself - she is confident in the regulatory framework for accessing the power grid and in what she calls “extensive” provincial regulations surrounding water use. “You sign an agreement, this is how much water you need and you are asking for, if you take more than that we have the ability to cut that off,” Landry said. “And to suggest that that’s not there is just false and fearmongering.” “You can withdraw 34 million litres from [Landrie’s Lake] a day,” argued Nova Scotia attorney general Scott Armstrong. “This [project] only uses about 500,000. It’s about one per cent of the allowable withdrawal.” Armstrong made the analogy that that is not much more than the roughly 450,000 litres per day used to power St. Mary’s University in the south end of Halifax. He then doubled down that the data centre will not raise people’s electricity bills. “There was no way the province would support anything that would actually raise customer rates in terms of Nova Scotia Power,” Armstrong said. “This is going to be self-contained in terms of power production as part of this project.” Meanwhile, a Change.org petition calling on the province to halt any approval of the data centre has received more than 14,000 signatures in four days. A news release from Change.org added that protests are planned across Nova Scotia for November 7. On Tuesday afternoon, Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative government confirmed to CTV News it will not be reconvening the legislature for an emergency debate about the matter - adding there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss the data centre during the spring sitting. The project’s first phase is expected to be finished sometime in 2027. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
