Minister Evan Solomon: Canada not responsible for AI power usage
Federal Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told a Senate committee on Thursday that the Canadian government is not responsible for regulating power usage by artificial intelligence data centres, stating that electricity jurisdiction belongs strictly to the provinces.
Jurisdiction Limits at the Federal Level
Solomon appeared before the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on Thursday to address infrastructure demands driven by the artificial intelligence sector. When senators pressed him on power consumption limits, he clarified the constitutional boundaries of the energy file, according to Global News reporting. The federal government cannot impose federal obligations on power regulation because power is the purvey of provincial regulators. Provinces such as Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia are in the process of creating their own data centre laws to manage local grid impacts.
Despite lacking authority over power generation and distribution, the federal government classifies both information technology and electricity grids as critical infrastructure. This designation grants Public Safety Canada the statutory capacity to manage operational risks and reduce vulnerabilities under the National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure. Solomon emphasized that doubling the capacity of Canada’s energy grid remains absolutely critical to successfully rolling out the national artificial intelligence strategy.
Ottawa Reviews 160 Data Centre Project Proposals
Ottawa has received proposals for over 160 data centre projects nationwide, according to Solomon’s testimony before the Senate committee. While large-scale developments typically require roughly 100 megawatts of power per building, smaller facilities are also under review. The federal government has secured memorandums of understanding with approximately four data centre companies to date.
While Solomon stated that Ottawa aims to support Canadian-owned data infrastructure, several major projects involve prominent U.S. technology firms. A notable example is taking shape in Nova Scotia, where EverWind Fuels announced a long-term agreement with a U.S. counterpart. Anthropic signed a 20-year lease for an 18,600-square-metre data centre in Point Tupper, Nova Scotia, designed to draw 95 megawatts of electricity during its initial operating phase. That facility is scheduled to come online late next year, with a subsequent 325-megawatt expansion targeted for mid-2028 that will push total energy demand to 420 megawatts.
New Guidelines Limit Water Use and Electricity Costs
To address municipal and environmental concerns, Ottawa released its Responsible Data Centre Development Principles. These guidelines require developers to ensure new projects do not shift electricity costs onto Canadian ratepayers while minimizing water consumption and overall environmental disruption.
In Nova Scotia, the Point Tupper development plans to utilize water from nearby Landrie Lake for server cooling. EverWind stated that the facility will employ a closed-loop cooling system akin to a car radiator, ensuring cooling fluid is recycled or disposed of off-site rather than discharged into local waterways. The system will draw an average of 100,000 litres of water daily during its first phase—equivalent to the usage of a large shopping mall—scaling up to 500,000 litres per day upon completion. That expanded volume represents approximately one per cent of the lake’s safe daily yield of 34 million litres.