Dozens protest Meta data centre planned for county north of Edmonton

Posted August 2, 2026 3:25 pm

1 min read

2:03 Data Centre Debate

RELATED: Data Centre Debate

Dozens of people are protesting tech giant Meta’s plan to build its first Canadian data centre in a county north of Edmonton.

Ben Baril is the 20-year-old organizer of the protest in Morinville, a town in Sturgeon County, where the tech giant behind Facebook announced last month it’s building its massive one-gigawatt data centre.

Baril says the $13-billion-plus facility will strain Alberta’s water supply and energy grid, and contribute to the climate crisis in the future.

1:57 Mississauga approves 1-year moratorium on AI data centres

He says protesters are also against data centres across Canada because the expansion of artificial intelligence threatens jobs.

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Meta has said the centre will be online in the next two to three years.

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Premier Danielle Smith has said Alberta’s grid operator will use surplus energy to power the centre until a new natural gas-fired plant — called the Greenlight Electricity Centre — starts powering it in 2030.

Pembina Pipeline Corp., Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management are behind the plant.

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