Vancouver protesters demand halt to planned AI data centres amid water shortage
Hundreds of people marched through Vancouver on Saturday to protest two planned AI data centres, citing concerns about water and energy consumption as the region tightens restrictions on both resources.
The demonstration, organized by Torin LaRocque, began at Waterfront Station and proceeded toward Granville Island. LaRocque called for the city and federal government to stop the projects entirely. "We should just not have any data centres in Canada, period," he said.
Telus is proposing the two Vancouver facilities as part of Ottawa's Enabling large-scale sovereign AI data centres initiative. The first location, at the former Hootsuite headquarters in Mount Pleasant, is scheduled to open later this year. A second facility at 150 West Georgia Street is planned for 2029. The company also plans to expand its existing Kamloops facility.
Federal Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has framed the project as necessary to expand Canada's "sovereign compute capacity" and help domestic businesses and academic institutions compete globally in AI.
Both the B.C. government and City of Vancouver have endorsed the proposal. Mayor Ken Sim called the data centres "world-class facilities."
Water and energy remain unresolved
Metro Vancouver is currently under Stage 2 water restrictions, which ban lawn watering. Stage 3 restrictions are expected in June. Protesters argue the public lacks information about the environmental costs of hosting AI infrastructure during a drought.
Linda Parkinson, director of water services at Metro Vancouver, said the region has no specific policy for data centres. Large water users are evaluated case-by-case. "Both the city and Metro would have concerns and questions about a large water user coming in," Parkinson said. The key question is whether the facility recycles water rather than drawing heavily from the region's system.
Telus claims the facilities will run on 98 percent clean hydro power and use 90 percent less water than traditional data centres. The company says it will recycle waste energy to heat 150,000 homes and incorporate recycled water from B.C. Place stadium.
Emily Lowan, leader of the B.C. Green Party, expressed skepticism. "It feels like our politicians are just blindly chasing the AI bubble," she said. She argued the proposed downtown and Mount Pleasant sites should be used for housing or community needs instead.
Federal assessment underway
The federal government said no funding has been committed or distributed to the project yet. A spokesperson for Minister Solomon's office said residents' concerns about energy use, water consumption, noise, grid impacts, and local benefits are part of the federal assessment process.
Data centre power and water consumption have become contentious issues across North America as tech companies expand operations to support generative AI and LLM systems. A 2023 study found that generating 10 to 50 medium-sized responses with ChatGPT consumed half a litre of water. The International Energy Agency estimated data centres used 140 billion litres of water globally in 2023 for cooling alone.
For AI for Government professionals, these debates signal that infrastructure decisions around AI will face increasing public scrutiny and regulatory questions about resource allocation during climate constraints.
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