Proposed Cape Breton AI data centre faces pushback

Shut it down! Shut it down! Dozens of people descended upon Province House to protest a massive new AI data centre that will be built in Nova Scotia. Everyone around here I feel like has been blindsided by this. I just think what the government is doing is not right for the environment, it's not right for the people. I think part of the reason why Nova Scotia and this territory is so loved is because of our ecosystems and environment and I believe that AI data centers will ruin those ecosystems and environmental systems. I thought we were elbows up, go Canada. This is not a Canadian initiative. Why are we putting it in our province? On Friday, officials announced that Everwind Fuels will build the $8 billion facility and lease it to Anthropic, the San Francisco-based company behind Claude. Land is already being cleared in Point Tupper, Cape Breton, and construction is set to begin before winter. It's making Nova Scotia more resilient in an economic sense. Everwind will spend another $2 billion to build four onshore wind farms, which will eventually power the data centre. But in the meantime, the facility will draw from the province's existing grid. Premier Houston, we are calling on your government to immediately convene an emergency session of the legislature so that you can answer to Nova Scotians. The leader of the opposition says the government needs to implement legislation to address the public's concerns about energy consumption and environmental impacts. In other jurisdictions where we've had these hyperscale data centers, we know that they lead to higher power rates. They just do. And so what we need is legislation to protect Nova Scotians. The environment minister says certain permits still need to be approved to uphold the Environment Act. And I can assure all Nova Scotians that decisions that are made are based on science, facts, and the evidence. But for those opposed to the data center, there are too many risks and unanswered questions. They're calling on the province to pump the brakes before the project goes any further. Selena Alders, CBC News, Halifax.