Smith Defends Meta's Alberta AI Data Centre

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith spent much of her Saturday radio call-in show doing damage control on Meta's newly announced $13 billion AI data centre, fielding a wave of public anxiety about grid costs, environmental impact, and long-term accountability that the initial announcement didn't fully address, according to CBC's coverage of the call-in show.

The concerns were specific and pointed. One caller asked how everyday Alberta families would be protected from subsidizing big tech's power demands. Another asked what decommissioning plans exist for a facility of this scale once its useful life ends. A third caller told Smith directly, "I don't feel protected." The questions reflect a broader anxiety that's followed AI data centre announcements across Canada, similar to what we covered in Toronto and Hamilton's own data centre struggles.

Smith's central argument rests on Alberta's regulatory structure, which requires large data centre developers to build their own power generation rather than drawing primarily from the shared grid. "We told companies you can come, but you ought to build your own power and, better yet, build more than you need so you can sell back into the grid," Smith said. That's the underlying logic behind Meta's Sturgeon County facility, which will draw power from a dedicated $4.6 billion natural gas plant built specifically to serve it.

Alberta's Minister of Affordability and Utilities, RJ Sigurdson, has said the facility's first phase will still draw 970 megawatts directly from the grid, a detail that complicates the picture Smith presented. Smith also addressed end-of-life planning directly, saying the province has decommissioning plans in place, pointing to Alberta's two-decade history running an electronic waste recycling stream as precedent.

Smith has repeatedly emphasized the economic upside, telling reporters the project will generate at least $250 million annually for Alberta's economy. According to The Globe and Mail's analysis, the investment is expected to boost fortunes for the province's utilities and natural gas producers, including Pembina, Capital Power, TransAlta, and TC Energy. Alberta has stated a broader ambition to have $100 billion in data centres under construction by the end of the decade.

Not everyone in the province is convinced the tradeoffs favor Albertans. Environmental groups have pointed out that Alberta paused renewable project approvals for seven months in 2023, meaning the province's data centre boom is being powered overwhelmingly by natural gas rather than cleaner alternatives, a tension we've tracked since Meta's original data centre announcement.

I've advised companies on AI infrastructure decisions for four years, and this story is a useful preview of the public relations terrain that accompanies large AI capital investments. For companies planning major infrastructure investments, Alberta's requirement that developers bring their own power generation is worth understanding alongside our broader AI for business guide on evaluating infrastructure partners.

Watch whether other provinces adopt Alberta's bring-your-own-power model as a response to similar public pushback, and whether Meta's decommissioning commitments get formalized into binding regulatory requirements rather than remaining a verbal assurance from the premier's office.