Send a Letter: Demand Transparency from AI Data Centres

June 10, 2026

Alberta and Canada have stated that multiple Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centres will not be subject to Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA).

The purpose of an EIA, in the provincial government’s own words, is to allow “companies and government decision makers to examine the effects that the proposed project may have on the environment and determine if the project is of public interest.”

By bypassing this due process, government officials have decided on everyone’s behalf that AI data centres are in the public interest without any substantiating evidence. But research on existing data centres has found that their operations can have significant negative impacts (see below for more details).

AI data centres have real-world implications for nearby communities, but without EIAs, whether those impacts are acceptable or sustainable remain unknown. EIAs also investigate the social, economic, and health impacts, providing a cost-benefit analysis to better weigh a given project. In the absence of EIAs, the public is forced to take companies at their word, which is currently limited.

If AI data centres are as beneficial, sustainable, and lucrative as their proponents would claim, then they have nothing to fear from a robust EIA. The process would serve to increase transparency, proactively identify issues and address public concerns, and foster local goodwill.

Send your letter to tell the Premier, relevant ministers, and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada that the public deserves to know the impact of AI data centres.

Environmental Impact Assessments must be made mandatory for AI data centres

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I am writing to request that Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) be made mandatory for all AI data centres. Currently, three different proposals have been permitted to bypass this process in Alberta, even though research on established data centres finds the negative impacts of their operations can be significant.

AI data centres have been found to reduce air and water quality, increase heat exposure and carbon emissions, cause noise pollution, and result in the loss of public lands, natural spaces, and agricultural areas. The public deserves to know the full scope and implications of these impacts.

AI data centres also have real-world implications for nearby communities, but without EIAs, whether those impacts are acceptable or sustainable remain unknown. EIAs also investigate the social, economic, and health impacts, providing a cost-benefit analysis to better weigh a given project. In the absence of EIAs, the public is forced to take companies at their word, which is currently limited.

Please ensure that all AI data centres, including those for which an EIA was originally waived (Mihta Askiy, Synapse, and Wonder Valley Data Centres), undergo an EIA so we can ensure these projects are in the public’s best interest before committing substantial provincial resources, energy, and investment to their development.

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Additional Information

The computing power required by AI means massive energy demands. For example, operating Synapse Data Centre Inc., proposed in the town of Olds would require 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of power each day, equivalent to the entirety of Edmonton’s daily use, and this is just one of dozens of similarly energy-intensive data centres hoping to operate in the province.

The Alberta Electric Systems Operator (AESO) reports that requests from data centres to connect to the grid have “surged” since 2024, but are “not contributing sufficient or timely generation, creating grid reliability issues.” Cumulative demand for power from data centres increased over 5,800 percent in a single year, to a total of 11.9 GW by the start of 2025. As this is being written, the entire province of Alberta is generating and consuming approximately 10 GW.

As a pre-emptive measure, AESO has capped supply for data centres at 1.2 GW and currently requires new operators to provide their own power rather than draw from the shared grid. Many proposed projects indicate intentions to construct large natural gas-based generators, which will increase air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions within the province, as well as compete for the supply and pricing of natural gas. The chemical compounds released when burning natural gas (largely methane) decrease air quality and are associated with increased short and long-term health burdens on the public, including respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders, poor reproductive outcomes, and premature mortality.

Planned in the Municipal District of Greenview and purported to be the ‘largest data centre on Earth,’ Wonder Valley would need 7.5 GW to run, requiring “about 10% of all gas supply in Alberta once fully operational.” It would emit over 25 million tonnes of greenhouse gases alone, reversing all the progress the province has made on emissions reductions when coal power was phased out of the grid. This backsliding has real costs, as intensifying carbon emissions contributes to climate change, Already, we are seeing the cascading effects that decades of climate change denial, dithering, and inaction have wrought. 

Alberta is located in one of the world’s four “mega-drying regions,” where terrestrial water storage is being lost at increasingly faster rates due to climate change. The landscape is losing its natural ability to retain water, which has profound implications for our livelihoods. A drier Aberta means increased water insecurity — less water reliably available for the economy and to meet all our society’s essential needs (think health, hygiene, sanitation, safety, and emergency response). It means increased costs for food, as the loss of crop and livestock production squeezes supply and creates shortages, as well as higher energy costs, with extreme temperatures becoming more common. In this rapidly changing climate, droughts, wildfires, and floods all become more frequent, severe, and unpredictable, and with that comes increased expenses for responding to, managing, mitigating, and preventing the next natural disaster.  

AI data centres are also known to consume considerable volumes of water for both cooling purposes and when generating electricity, which can contribute to local water scarcity, particularly in drought-prone regions. In addition to quantity, water quality can also be impacted, with research finding that the evaporative cooling processes often employed at data centres produce wastewater with high concentrations of contaminants. Many of the data centre developers in Alberta assert they will require limited water withdrawals or use ‘closed loop systems,’ but exact volumes, technologies, and management procedures remain unknown. This is worrisome considering that many watersheds, particularly in dry Southern Alberta, are already overallocated and intensely used; to continue to reliably provide to all those reliant on them, rivers like the Oldman and Bow need more water flowing through them, not less.

Other environmental issues associated with AI data centres include noise pollution, increased heat exposure, and loss or alteration of natural areas and agricultural lands and their associated benefits. At a time when we are already dealing with energy uncertainty, water shortages, climate change, ecosystem loss, and declining health, AI operators need to prove that the benefits and opportunities outweigh the extensive costs.