We, the undersigned, People of Canada, call upon the House of Commons in Parliament assembled to immediately impose a federal moratorium on the approval, construction, expansion, or operation of proposed hyperscale AI data centres in Alberta, including the proposed Wonder Valley AI Data Centre Industrial Park and the proposed Synapse Data Centers Olds Project.
1. Prohibit federal permits, funding, tax incentives, loan guarantees, infrastructure support, or federal land and water access for AI data centres powered primarily by fossil fuels or requiring large-scale freshwater withdrawals;
2. Establish binding national environmental protections that permanently prohibit hyperscale AI data centres that would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions, strain provincial electrical grids, consume unsustainable amounts of freshwater, or negatively impact surrounding communities, farmland, ecosystems, or Indigenous territories;
3. Require mandatory federal environmental assessments, transparent public hearings, and free, prior, and informed consent from affected Indigenous nations and municipalities before any future AI data centre proposal may be considered in Alberta and in Canada
This is prime agricultural land and is home to many specifies of wildlife including migratory birds like Canada geese which are protected.
The town of Gibbons is already struggling financially and with the possibility of the town already having an increase of 30-42% property tax due to the neglected budget the landowners cannot afford the damage and costs that also come from a data centre just kilometers away. They cannot bear the financial burden of more expensive water and electricity and gas after this is put through as well.
The people have not been consulted, informed or heard. And this is not only going to affect Gibbons. We already struggle with water and drought and fires. The entire county will be affected.
We live here, we farm here, we raise our families here and we want to be heard.
This needs to be stopped.
