Mississauga, Ont., city council voted to approve a one-year moratorium on artificial intelligence data centres Wednesday.
This represents a departure from a pattern that was forming in Ontario. A similar motion for a moratorium was defeated by Hamilton’s city council earlier this month. Vaughan has already approved a hyperscale AI data centre, which is nearly finished construction and set to come online in the latter half of this year.
Mississauga’s motion passed unanimously. Mayor Carolyn Parrish did not cast a vote, as the mayor only votes in case of a tie.
‘Hyperscale’ data centre planned for city’s northwest corner
The proposal at the centre of Wednesday’s vote was a planned 50-100 megawatt site at Tenth Line West and Argentia Road, less than 300 metres from a residential neighbourhood.
Both Mississauga and Ontario have been dotted with data centres for years, but, if built, this would be among the province’s first hyperscale centres.
These types of centres draw significantly more power than smaller sites, presenting more potential issues with noise, water usage and grid capacity.
The results of the vote now make it unclear if or how this project will proceed.
Speaking to Global News before the vote, city councillor and mayoral candidate Alvin Tedjo said more safeguards are needed, despite data centres’ importance to the Canadian economy.
Get breaking National news
“Right now there are no regulations,” he said. “There’s no guardrails that would ensure what we’re looking for is what we get. There’s a lot of concerns around power consumption, how that creates heat islands, the noise attenuation that’s going to be happening. We want to make sure there are safeguards so that the quality of life of residents isn’t affected by this in a negative way.”
Those concerns were echoed by numerous local residents who stepped up to the microphone wearing anti-AI buttons on their lapels to voice their concerns with the project.
Included in the list of speakers was University of Toronto doctor and physician advocate Mili Roy, who raised concerns that a potential increase in power usage could lead to the gap being filled by gas-fired electricity, which comes with additional environmental pitfalls.
Roy also said that research shows data centre water demands are linked to local water insecurity and drinking water contamination.
Another resident who spoke said she lives steps away from the proposed hyperscale data centre. She said nothing that could come from the data centre is worth the health of residents.
Data centres becoming municipal election issue
The future of data centres in Mississauga and other cities across Ontario could be on the ballot in this fall’s municipal elections.
- Carney won’t say if Canadian energy sector will be a trade bargaining chip
- German company and B.C.’s Ksi Lisims sign landmark long-term LNG agreement
- WestJet, union talks ‘progressing’ as strike deadline nears, minister says
- House committee will meet on call to probe Carney’s Gordie Howe bridge deal
The Mississauga mayoral election is expected to be one of the more heated races in the province, with ex-mayor Bonnie Crombie looking to win her former job back from Parrish.
Before the vote, Parrish expressed concerns about losing millions in tax revenue, but also said she sympathizes with the “fear of the unknown.”
She also said the moratorium will end up applying to many properties, not just the hyperscale data centre.
Crombie also weighed in, posting a video to X before the vote, saying she’s heard the concerns about environmental impact, and that if elected, she would create an expert advisory panel that would report back to council to create a framework for how to evaluate data centre proposals.
City staff will now write up the interim control bylaw that will prevent any data centres from being built in Mississauga for one year. Staff have also been tasked with researching and developing a protocol for evaluating applications.