Bell Canada is giving a first look of an expansion to its data centre in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, south of Regina. At an RM meeting Wednesday, Bell representatives outlined the new plans as councillors reviewed amendments to its zoning bylaws and official community plan for the area. “The rezoning would allow approximately nine new data centres and supporting infrastructure built in stages from as early as 2027 through 2030 and beyond,” said Bell Canada (BCE) president of AI Fabric Dan Rink. “[This] is subject to approvals and customer demand.” “As with the campus under construction, the buildings would be single storey, roughly 10 meters high behind four-meter-high landscape berms which would be topped with acoustic fencing,” he added. Originally announced as a 300-megawatt campus, BCE, the province and federal government announced last month the project was expanding to 1.2 gigawatts — a quadrupling of the data centre’s size. Bell’s application requests the RM to rezone the land from agricultural district to light industrial — similar to what happened in April after the centre’s original announcement. According to concept plans, BCE is purchasing an additional 895 acres of land south of Regina in the RM of Sherwood to facilitate the expansion; bringing the total size of the campus to over 1,000 acres. The campus will now stretch from the ‘Old Highway 16’ all the way to the Regina Bypass. “I don’t take lightly what it means to ask an RM to rezone farmland,” said Rink. Rink added land owned by Bell, which is not developed, will remain as farmland and current farmers would be allowed to work it under a lease agreement. Wednesday’s meeting Wednesday’s council meeting was Sherwood’s first since Sept. 23, when protesters stormed the chambers — ultimately forcing the RM to end the meeting prematurely. The morning’s meeting was moved to a virtual platform, as allowed under Sherwood’s policies. Despite this, a small group of protesters gathered outside the RM office. “I would like a full environmental review and First Nations consultation,” said Samantha Lawler. “I would like public input; none of this has been done. It’s incredibly shady for something that will affect everyone in the province as it eats up all of our electricity.” Protestors also raised concerns about data sovereignty, and potential impacts to vulnerable people. “I know we can’t stop it, but we don’t want it in our area,” said Kerri Lonechild. “We don’t want it for our kids, we don’t want it for our elders, we don’t want it for people who have sensitivity.” Another handful of residents opposed to the data centre joined the virtual meeting. In the chat, many voiced their displeasure with the original plans, the expansion and AI in general. “I wonder if this council has done their due diligence, instead of just taking the word of Bell,” said Dillon Forsberg. “We already have plenty of examples of the consequences AI data centres in North America and none of them have resulted in what Bell is promising.” As part of their presentation, BCE representatives addressed concerns related to water use, power, sound and other environmental impacts. Acting Reeve Ray Orb said what Bell presented Wednesday to council members brought him confidence. “[Council] is quite pleased with the consultation process done — the engineering, drawings and plans,” he told CTV News after the meeting. “After what we saw at the site, [we’re] fairly confident this could move ahead and [Bell] would be there to answer questions at any time — answering our questions and handling the concerns we have.” Orb added he expects Bell to be forthcoming with local landowners and RM of Sherwood ratepayers. As part of its expansion, BCE announced it would move its AI Fabric headquarters to Saskatchewan. For the first time Wednesday, representatives released their vision for where that could be. “That’ll be downtown Regina, because that is the goal right now,” Rink said. “Now, it’s subject to finding the right location; but in Regina for sure, not on the campus.” Rink explained the campus will host technical staff, engineers, maintenance workers and mechanics, while the head office will host management and those in executive roles. He expressed hope the location would ultimately be Regina. Bell says up to 1,200 construction jobs will be created as part of this new expansion. Once operational, the centre is expected to bring 280 to 500 permanent positions and 100 executive roles at its head office. Next steps Orb says he has not seen an environmental assessment related to Bell’s expansion. “It’s something Bell has to provide to us, and I know that it will be ongoing,” he said. “A provincial assessment will be done and we’ll be waiting for that in the days ahead.” Council unanimously passed the first reading of the bylaw. This allows the RM to move to the next phase in the potential approval process – a public hearing. No date has been set for when that hearing will be, but the RM says it will advertise it when one is scheduled. Orb reminded those wishing to speak at the hearing of the municipality’s process to ensure the meeting goes smoothly without disruption. “The general public will still be able to voice their concerns at consultation meetings,” he said. “If protesters have any interest in getting their opinions across, choose a spokesperson and apply to appear at our regular council meetings, [or] at our public hearings, so they can voice their concerns that way.” Delegation requirements under the RM of Sherwood policies can be found here. If rezoning and conceptual planning is successful, Bell will still be required to complete a final detailed design and have that approved under the RM’s discretionary use bylaws prior to any further development at the site. CTV News, CP24 and BNN Bloomberg are divisions of Bell Media, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of BCE Inc.
