Over Wednesday’s lunch hour, approximately 40 people gathered outside the Hyatt Regency Calgary, which was hosting an AI data centre conference. “We don’t want AI data centres. We’re here to make that clear,” said Alberta Anti-AI rally organizer Jenna Abbas. “There are a whole bunch of concerns that data centres bring in.” Abbas points to AI data centres’ environmental impacts. “They increase the ground temperature. They also contaminate water, and there are also particles that they released in the air that are not even considered under environmental assessment,” she said. The protest was outside of the Data Centre West Conference hosted in the Hyatt Regency and marketed as Western Canada’s premier data centre and digital infrastructure conference. The event was closed off to the press. Affordability and Utilities Minister RJ Sigurdson and Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish attended the event. Abbas and other protesters were hoping to get their attention. “(Glubish) has said some questionable things about rushing AI data centre development,” said Abbas. “There needs to be time for Canadians and Albertans to be aware of the dangers.” In response, Glubish’s office says it takes Albertans’ concerns raised about water use, land, electricity demand and community impacts seriously. “We studied the experiences of jurisdictions that rushed into these projects without the right safeguards and built a strong regulatory framework that protects our communities, our electricity grid and our environment,” it said. “Our goal is to build an industry that creates good jobs and economic growth while protecting the environment and respecting the communities where these facilities are located. “That’s the balance we’re working toward.”
