Ontario Construction News staff writer
Ontario Green Party Leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner is calling for a moratorium on artificial intelligence data centre development until the province establishes rules governing environmental, energy, health and economic impacts.
Schreiner made the call Thursday as municipalities grapple with growing interest in data-centre development and concerns about the facilities’ potential demands on electricity, water and local infrastructure.
“This is about putting communities over corporations and protecting the places we love from unregulated takeover,” Schreiner said in a statement.
He was joined by representatives of Water Watchers and the Council of Canadians, who also demand stronger provincial oversight on data centre development.
“This is about transparency and about what a true democracy looks like,” said Shelly Aguis, co-chair of the Toronto chapter of the Council of Canadians.
Several municipalities are also deciding how data centres should be regulated.
Mississauga city council voted unanimously last month to impose a one-year moratorium on new data centres while the city conducts a review of their potential effects on municipal infrastructure, economic activity, the environment, noise, energy and water consumption.
Toronto city council has not imposed a moratorium, but recently called on the provincial government to establish a provincewide framework addressing environmental impacts, noise and electricity infrastructure associated with large-scale AI data centres by the end of March 2027.
Hamilton city council also considered a temporary moratorium but rejected the proposal in July.
Municipalities have faced challenges regulating data centres through local planning rules because the facilities are not always identified as a separate land-use category.
In Mississauga, data centres are classified as warehouses despite their potentially significant electricity and water requirements.
In Strathroy-Caradoc, residents raised concerns after a proposed rezoning application listed a data centre as one of the possible uses for a property being considered for general industrial zoning. The reference was later removed.
Municipalities have also expressed concern that provincial ministerial zoning orders could override local planning decisions involving data centres.
The provincial government has already taken steps to address concerns about the effect of data centres on Ontario’s electricity system with legislation requiring data centres to receive provincial approval before connecting to the electricity grid.
However, Schreiner also raised concerns about data-centre operators turning to natural gas generation to meet their electricity needs, pointing to increased natural gas use associated with data-centre development in the United States.
The proposed moratorium would not permanently prevent data centres from being built in Ontario. Instead, he wants the province to pause new projects while it establishes rules governing their effects on communities, the environment, energy infrastructure and the economy.