The Fight Against AI data Centres
Sara Derksen (they/them) // News Editor
Lily Jones (she/her)// Contributing Visuals
There is a growing movement seeking to prevent the construction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centres in Metro Vancouver. On May 11, 2026, Telus announced in a news release that they would be working with the Government of Canada and Westbank Corp. on three sovereign AI facilities in British Columbia. The project includes the expansion of their Kamloops facility and two new facilities being developed in Vancouver. The proposed sites are located at Mount Pleasant and at 150 West Georgia Street.
The backlash to the project has been loud. The Tyee reported that Vancouver City Council received hundreds of submissions from locals concerned about the cluster ahead of the July 23 public hearing. This public outcry was heard. According to the City of Vancouver, city council referred the issue of the Mount Pleasant data centre back to staff. This delay allows staff to engage in additional public consultation before conducting an approval vote. The public consultation will begin after the municipal election on Oct. 17.
Two days after the project was announced, BC Green Party Leader Emily Lowan called for a moratorium on AI data centres being built in BC. She challenged the rationale that building data centres in Canada protects Canadian sovereignty. In March 2026, Telus confirmed that 1000 terabytes of user data were stolen by hackers. Considering this recent security breach as well as their off-shore data storage practices, Lowan is quoted as saying that
“this [project] is not a solution for data security or sovereignty.”
Lowan also voiced concern that the project would put a strain on water and energy systems. Regions of BC have frequently been experiencing droughts. The Canadian Climate Institute predicts that these droughts are projected to become more common and more severe in the coming years. Since the province relies on hydroelectric power generation, dry spells cause energy shortages. The BC Greens argue that the construction of data centres in BC will exacerbate these conditions, including the energy shortages that have already forced the province to import American coal-fired electricity.
Shortly after the Telus announcement, grassroots protest group No AI Vancouver was founded in opposition of the proposed cluster. What initially started as an Instagram account made by CapU student Torin LaRocque soon became a larger movement. In an interview with the Courier, LaRocque explained that he expected no more than 100 people to attend the first protest on May 23, 2026. However, hundreds of people assembled to march from Waterfront Station. “People really rallied around it,”said LaRocque.
”I feel like it really called to how people are feeling about AI data centres in Vancouver.”
After the first protest, interest in the movement grew, with more organizers joining the team behind No AI Vancouver. Two more protests were held in June and July, hosting speakers at Vancouver City Hall. These speakers included COPE municipal candidates Solomon Yi-Kieran and Stephanie Allen, who has since withdrawn from the mayoral race. Canadian Animation Guild (CAG) President Eddy Pedreira also spoke out.
CAG is Canada’s first International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees animation union. They have been outspoken advocates protecting animators’ rights as AI adoption changes the entertainment industry.
In 2025, the CAG secured a collective agreement with the workers of entertainment company Wildbrain studios. This agreement introduced AI protections for animators working for the company. The protections are reported by The Tyee to include full credit rights for animators using generated material. The animators are also immune to legal action in case of inadvertent copyright infringement by studio use of AI, as well as demotion to lower paying AI-focused positions.
The AI factory cluster is the first selected project of the Enabling Large-Scale Sovereign AI Data Centres initiative. This initiative allows applicants selected by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation to enter a memorandum of understanding with Canada to build AI compute infrastructure on Canadian soil.
AI compute is defined in the Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy as “the computational resources required for AI systems to perform tasks, such as processing data, running algorithms and training machine learning models.” It has been a focus of the Canadian government since April 2024, when Budget 2024 announced that $2 billion would be invested in domestic AI infrastructure and research over five years.
The Coalition of Progressive Electors Vancouver (COPE) is the first and only municipal party with an AI platform as of writing. On Sept. 10, they held a rally at the site of the 150 West Georgia data centre. There, COPE announced their AI platform ahead of the municipal election.
City Councillor Sean Orr announced the party’s proposal for an Acceptable Use for AI Policy to be implemented at the City of Vancouver. He reasoned that use of AI by elected officials, staff and city employees poses a security risk when used to process sensitive information.
Yi-Kieran detailed COPE’s call for a moratorium on AI data centres, securing COPE as the first municipal party to do so. They cited pollution concerns and cost to the public as justification for the moratorium.
COPE school board trustee Suzie Mah spoke about the use of AI in local schools. She described how the lack of AI policies in school districts and consultation with staff and parents is “a serious problem.” In a bid to resist the potentially deleterious effects of AI-use in schools, COPE has signed onto the Parents for AI Caution in Educational Spaces (PACES) pledge. PACES is a volunteer organization fighting to keep AI out of Vancouver schools.
In the lead up to the election, the movement against data centres has no intention of slowing down.