This record counts two data centre campuses under construction in Canada; everything else in the national file is a request, a promise, a pause or a vote.
The map in five lines.
Building: Meta’s 1 GW campus in Alberta and Bell’s 300 MW first phase near Regina are under construction.
Blocked, as reported: Oakville, Mississauga and Sault Ste. Marie sit under one-year pauses, Stone Mills is an unwilling host, and Manitoba’s 500 MW proposal stands rejected.
Waiting on power: Alberta’s queue holds about 19,565 MW against a 1,200 MW first phase, BC is rationing 400 MW by competition, and Quebec has not priced a kilowatt.
Waiting on rules: Ontario’s Playbook is a draft, Quebec’s tariff is unapproved, and Ottawa’s national principles bind nobody.
The public: 64% of Canadians say their province should limit large data centres, and 18% would encourage more, in an October 7, 2026 poll.
The status word is the story. A request is a filing that waits for a decision. A memorandum is an intention that binds nobody to build.
- What has Ottawa actually decided?
- What is Alberta building, and what is it charging?
- Why is British Columbia running a competition instead of a queue?
- What in Saskatchewan’s $50B headline is actually being built?
- What has Manitoba decided, and on what record?
- Who decides in Ontario while the Playbook is a draft?
- What will a data centre kilowatt cost in Quebec?
- What is Atlantic Canada building, and who is objecting?
- The project rows in one table
- How is this record kept?
What has Ottawa actually decided?
Ottawa has published expectations and kept no approvals: the federal principles are voluntary, and every build decision sits at a provincial, municipal or Indigenous table. The Responsible Data Centre Development Principles launched on September 3, 2026, with 23 signatories (Ottawa Set Five Expectations for Data Centres. The Switches Sit Elsewhere.).
The numbers argue both ways until the statuses are separated: two campuses building read as a boom, and 19,565 MW waiting in one queue reads as a blockade. An Angus Reid poll of 4,417 adults, fielded September 8 to 16, 2026 and released October 7, 2026, asked whether provincial governments should limit the development of large data centres. 64% said limit, 18% would encourage more, and water use led the reasons at 51% (64% of Canadians Want Data Centre Limits. The Builds Continue.).
What is Alberta building, and what is it charging?
Alberta is furthest along, and it has priced its queue. The Data Centre Regulation, in force since June 2026, prioritizes projects that bring generation or storage. Requests stood at about 19,565 MW on the July 30, 2026 connection list, against a fully allocated 1,200 MW first phase; the province’s data centres page carries both.
The build is Meta’s campus, ground-broken July 8, 2026: 1 GW, more than $13B CAD, with its own funded generation. A frontier AI lab has bought a power generation platform outright (A Frontier AI Lab Paid $3.4B to Make Its Own Electricity).
The levy charges 2% on computer hardware at grid-connected sites of 75 MW and above from December 31, 2026, dropping to 1% with own generation, 0% fully off-grid (Alberta’s data centre levy can drop to 0%. The host town can’t tax the servers); Calgary’s layer runs on its own clock (Calgary’s data centre pause hangs on one undefined word).
Below the confirmed line: Calgary’s 90 MW eStruxture data centre, reported under construction in August 2026; Anthropic lease talks at a Beacon campus, reported October 30, 2026 and unconfirmed; and two Olds proposals in a March 10, 2026 town handout.
Why is British Columbia running a competition instead of a queue?
British Columbia has capped the power on offer and is scoring the applicants: 400 MW across two years. BC Hydro’s 2026 Call for Demand runs February 1, 2026 to February 1, 2028, capped at 300 MW for AI data centres, 100 MW for conventional ones, and 145 MW per project. The call opened on January 30, 2026 under Bill 31; applications closed on March 9, 2026. Applicants are scored on price and data sovereignty, plus community and economic benefit tests written into the call. Winners were to be notified in September 2026; no winners list has been published, and no individual project stands verified at a primary source. BC rations power by scorecard; Alberta rations it by queue. BC published its test before the applications arrived; Alberta’s Phase 2 test is still being written.
What in Saskatchewan’s $50B headline is actually being built?
Saskatchewan’s record separates cleanly into a build and a promise: 300 MW is under construction, and the 900 MW behind the headline is a non-binding memorandum. The Bell AI Fabric campus draws 300 MW from SaskPower toward first halls. On September 14, 2026, Bell and the province signed a memorandum: 1.2 GW and more than $50B CAD at full buildout, with 900 MW more from partner-built gas, a plan rather than a final investment decision (Saskatchewan Announced More Than $50 Billion. The Ground Outside Regina Holds 300 MW.).
One entry rests on reporting: in April 2026, as reported, the development agreement won unanimous approval from a council the province had reconstituted with three elected members and four provincial appointees. The unanimous vote, as reported, came from a body whose majority the province itself had appointed.
What has Manitoba decided, and on what record?
Manitoba has set the country’s steepest reported power price for data centres and rejected the only large proposal put to it, and both entries rest on reporting. The levy on crypto mining and data centres has run since June 2026, above 5 MW at a 100% markup, and the minister expects up to $20M from it, as reported in October 2026. Only one proposed project, at 5.5 MW near Rosser, sits above the threshold.
The Jet.AI and Consensus Core proposal, 500 MW of gas-turbine generation at Île-des-Chênes, was turned down by the province, Premier Wab Kinew announcing the decision on June 4, 2026, over farmland, water and power. An announced rejection of this size deserves a published record; until one exists, this entry stays marked as reported.
Who decides in Ontario while the Playbook is a draft?
Ontario’s councils are deciding the file one town at a time: three have paused new data centres, one is an unwilling host, and the provincial rulebook is still a draft. The draft Playbook was released on August 13, 2026; comments closed September 12, 2026, and no final version has appeared. As reported, it requires government approval before a data centre connects under Bill 40 and proposes a new Global Adjustment rate class with no Industrial Conservation Initiative access. The council record is drawn from reporting, because the province publishes no consolidated record (Milton Voted to Study Data Centres. Sault Ste. Marie Voted to Stop Them.).
Oakville moved first: an interim control by-law on August 11, 2026 paused the town for a year, before any application existed. Mississauga followed on September 16, 2026 with a unanimous by-law that caught Prologis’s proposed 40 MW Meadowvale project. By mid-October, Sault Ste. Marie was the third to pass such a by-law in two months and Stone Mills an unwilling host; Hamilton voted 10 to 6 against a pause.
US politics just made data centres dearer there. That is Alberta’s pricing edge.
What will a data centre kilowatt cost in Quebec?
Quebec’s argument is about price: Hydro-Québec has asked its regulator for a tariff at roughly double the current large-power average, and no decision exists. The proposed tariff, announced on February 19, 2026, would apply above 5 MW at about 13 cents per kWh, against a current large-power average of 6.82 cents (Quebec’s 13-Cent Question Outlived the Decrees to Back It). New projects need ministerial authorization under the post-Bill 69 regime, and Régie hearings continue into fall 2026.
On the reported record, a Superior Court judge struck down the two decrees backing the increase on October 26, 2026. Keel Infrastructure’s Sherbrooke campus, as reported, consolidates three mining sites into 96 MW with no new megawatts, under a conditional municipal approval from July 13, 2026, with provincial approval still outstanding.
What is Atlantic Canada building, and who is objecting?
Atlantic Canada holds the largest announced campus in this record, and nearly every entry rests on reporting. At Point Tupper, EverWind Fuels announced a campus on October 16, 2026, with Anthropic as tenant. The build runs 95 MW in late 2027 and 325 MW more in mid-2028: 420 MW at $10B CAD, on the grid first and its own wind later (The $10 billion Nova Scotia data centre buys 215 jobs and a promise to unplug first).
Rallies in seven communities followed, demanding a moratorium until the province sets rules, as reported November 7, 2026, and no provincial moratorium has been announced (Seven Communities Asked for a Pause. Nova Scotia Has No Data Centre Rulebook Yet.).
In New Brunswick, Beacon New Brunswick and VoltaGrid propose 390 MW at Spruce Lake in Saint John, the proponent’s figure as reported; a federal designation request followed on August 16, 2026 and is still open. The province’s consultation closed October 2, 2026 with no framework, and Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador hold no verifiable entry.
The project rows in one table
The map below shows every project in the table. Green pins are operational. Orange pins are under construction or building. Yellow pins are in the queue, proposed or in assessment. Blue pins are approved with conditions or announced. Red pins are paused, blocked or rejected.
| Place | Project | Status | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sturgeon County, AB | Meta AI data centre campus | Under construction | 1 GW |
| Clairmont / Saddle Hills | KALiNA Power gas plants | In the AESO queue | 200 MW; 100 MW |
| Calgary, AB | eStruxture data centre | Reported under construction | 90 MW |
| RM of Sherwood, SK | Bell AI Fabric campus | Building; MOU | 300 MW; +900 MW proposed |
| Île-des-Chênes, MB | Jet.AI and Consensus Core proposal | Rejected (reported) | 500 MW |
| Mississauga, ON | Prologis Meadowvale project | Paused one year (reported) | 40 MW |
| Toronto, ON (Agincourt) | Toronto Hydro connection | Assessment complete | 10 MW; 27 MW total |
| Sherbrooke, QC | Keel Infrastructure campus | Conditional approval (reported) | 96 MW existing |
| Point Tupper, NS | EverWind Fuels campus, Anthropic tenant | Announced (reported) | 420 MW total |
| Saint John, NB | Spruce Lake AI Data Centre | Proposed | 390 MW (reported) |
Two campuses are under construction against about 19,565 MW of requests in Alberta’s queue alone. Three Ontario towns are paused, one Quebec tariff is unpriced, one Manitoba proposal stands rejected, one Atlantic campus is announced against opposition, and 64% of the country wants provincial limits while the builds continue. This page holds the map, and it moves when the provinces do.
How is this record kept?
This record starts at primary sources and keeps three words apart that headlines merge: requested, approved and built. Entries begin with council records, regulator filings, grid lists and government releases; press-only entries stay marked reported until a public record catches up. The page takes no side; a status word must be earned before it is printed. The next fixed date is December 31, 2026, when Alberta’s levy takes effect whether the queue is ready or not.
Follow AI Magazine Canada for the updates: every status change on this record becomes a story once it is verified.
