Data Centres In Alberta: Are the Benefits Worth the Cost?

Are data centres a major economic opportunity for Alberta—or do the demands on electricity, water and local infrastructure outweigh the benefits?

In this episode of The Okotoks Podcast, Carlin sits down with Jasona Rondeau to explore Alberta’s growing interest in attracting large-scale data centres. They discuss the potential for investment, jobs and economic diversification, while also examining concerns surrounding energy consumption, water use, noise, environmental impact and the pressure these developments could place on nearby communities.

Jasona also helps explain how modern data centres operate, including closed-loop cooling systems, evolving technology and the trade-offs communities should consider before welcoming these projects.

This is a balanced conversation about growth, responsibility and whether data centres truly make sense for Alberta.

Episode title:
Data Centres in Alberta: Are the Benefits Worth the Cost? with Jasona Rondeau

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Okatokes Podcast, where the stories are as solid as the big rock. Sponsored by Carlin Lutzer Real Estate.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Data centers are quickly becoming one of the hottest topics in Alberta. Supporters point to the investment, jobs, and economic opportunities they bring, while others are raising serious questions about water use, energy demands, noise, environmental impacts, and where these massive facilities should be built. Today I'm joined by landowner advocate Jaisana Rondo, who is currently working with residents affected by several proposed data center projects across Alberta, including the Beacon AI project here in Foothills County. Here's my conversation with Jaisana. Well, Jaisana, thank you for joining me today.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

My pleasure to be here, Carl. Thanks for asking me to come.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yeah, absolutely. And today, the hot topic. It seems like it's all over the place. People are talking about data centers. People are getting riled up. People are not really wanting data centers built in their backyard. I'm wondering if you can give us a little bit of um, you know, a history as to who you are and uh, I guess what your concerns are in regards to the data centers.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Sure. Um, my biggest concern, I think, is I've been acting as a social advocate for almost the last four years for any group of landowners or individual landowners who want to oppose some kind of a project that is landing on their back doorstep or close to it. And I've spent a lot of time dealing with different groups who are fighting wind or solar or batteries. And when data centers popped up earlier this year and I took a lot a look at the Synapse application, I kind of couldn't believe my eyes because over the years, the biggest thing that most of these projects feel or face is being inappropriately sighted. And when I looked at this proposal and saw that there were 2,100 residences within 2,000 meters of the gas plants and realized how deeply they could be impacted, I reached out to the group right away and offered to be able to help guide them through this uh somewhat chaotic process.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Okay, which group are we talking about? And which uh specifically, which data center are we talking about?

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Well, the I'm involved with four different data center projects right now. The first one is the OLDS residents for responsible development in OLDS. And their Facebook presence has kind of been run by a group called the OLDS Transparency Project. And they have an excellent Facebook page that is, and website uh as a resource for not only their community, but for other people across the province. And most recently, I was working with residents in Balkan County opposing the Palliser Grid project there, which is a two-gigawatt data center project located between the edge of Travers Solar Farm and the Travers Reservoir. And uh closer to home, we have the Foothills Beacon AI project that that has been talked about quite a bit in our local community pages in the last two weeks. And then Beacon also has another project up south of Edmonton called Saunders Lake. And so I'm involved with the resident groups there as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Okay, so right now, uh that one that Daniel Smith just uh proposed in Sturgeon County, do you think there's maybe not a lot of opposition to that one? Because it is kind of in the industrial area and it kind of goes hand in hand with what uh is in that industrial area in the Fort Saskatchewan area?

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Well, that would have been a better location to choose simply because it is already designated industrial. But the day after the meta-announcement, I saw that a landowner who is adjacent to the project is living there. And the public narrative is no, this land, it was cleared out decades ago. We were gonna build refineries here. There's nobody living here. But that is obviously not the case. So I think that now that the announcement has been made, and you know, this was the same thing that happened in Olds. Danielle Smith announced the Synapse project before any of the townspeople even knew about it. The town council knew, but the townspeople did not know. And so now that it's out in the news, I would expect there's going to be more opposition uh to that project.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

For sure. Yes, I I certainly did uh listen to a few podcasts and different things like that on the one in Olds. And I can certainly see how that one is very concerning. A question for you is if we were to build a data center in, like, let's take, for example, Grand Prairie, even out on Crown Land, there isn't anybody within a 30 kilometer radius of the place that they chose to build a data center. Um, they are supplying their own um power, they have sufficient water. Is there anything that you would be in opposition to towards that data center in uh a place where there's nobody, no residences within 30 kilometers?

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Well, I think the thing is like we have to be really specific. Each project has its own pros and cons, and they all get evaluated individually. So while I would be in favor of a data center project, um, it would only be if it was using brownfield man, previously reclaimed lands, uh Crown Forest Land when you look at that Wonder Valley project and see how many trees are going to have to be cleared there. I think that, you know, I don't classify myself as environmentalist, but I know that the people who do live there, and primarily the First Nations who call that land home, are very concerned about the environmental impacts and how many um environmental um assessments have been sidestepped in order to make these data centers uh integrate into our system. So residence is very important, but there are other uh people who will be collaterally damaged. Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

And and like who would who would that be in regards to the people in the Wonder Valley that there would be some damage to? Like, are we talking indigenous people or are we talking about it?

SPEAKER_02 6:23

I think that there's a different way to approach different kinds of damages because the indigenous people are primarily concerned about how their land is being treated and how it will be potentially contaminated, what the downstream impacts might be from a project and how it would affect them. Then if we start looking at noise, for example, and it's out in the middle of nowhere, but let's say we've got a farmer next rancher next next door that's not in all that far proximity, not a human, no residence, but he's using that land for livestock production, and the infrasound and low frequency noise that come from these projects drastically affects animals, living beings, plants, insects, all of that. So when you kind of start to find out a bit more about how deep the impacts are, because on the surface, and what is publicly advertised is very minimal compared to when you actually are looking at the real project documentation that has been put forward to AEPA or to the AUC, because it's in that documentation when you actually find out where the real risks lie. And so the public consultation piece becomes important because people don't know what the risks are until the project is actually applied to the regulatory body. And then all of that vital information on assessments and impacts has been performed and put on the public record.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Talking like any kind of wildlife, are we talking cattle that could be affected by the is it just the noises?

SPEAKER_02 7:56

It's it's anything that is a living organism. So what happens is infrasound is perceived in a living organism at the cellular level. We have these receptors, which they call mechanoreceptors, in the endothelial lining of each of your blood vessels. And those are triggered by noise you can't hear, vibration you can't feel, and something you can't see. But it creates a massive amount of stress responses in humans. And just in the last year and a half, I've been working with one of the most prominent uh German doctors in this area, trying to bring awareness because infrasound is produced by a lot of man-made industrial machinery. It also occurs in nature, but it's vastly different when it is man-made as opposed to when it's just that existing in nature.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

So would there be certain plants that wouldn't grow in that area in the area once a data center comes in that certain plants just won't grow anymore because of the frequency of the sound?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Say that it's certain plants won't grow anymore. What you'll see is that their growth will be stunted, or you could also see impacts from what they're calling the heat island effect, where the heat in the area that's being generated actually dries out the ambient soil conditions. So then the LBCing kind of crops die in that respect. And the microclimate of the area would be changed considerably by the heat that has to come off of not only a gas plant, but then the data centers and all of the um cooling mechanisms that they have. And they use water cooling to an extent, but they are also trying to use air cooling and so on. So that means the heat has to go somewhere and it goes that way.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

So, okay, let's now go to the water issue because I know water is a huge issue for data centers. They need to cool the data centers. They need to, otherwise uh they would melt and they would everything would fry and they would lose everything. I think there's so many different problems that people have with data centers, but one one is is cooling. Cooling and using a lot of water. Um I've now have become uh of the understanding that they're looking at the uh closed loop system as being a way to cool it and using glycol. Um what's your opinion on using glycol as opposed to water that they cycle through two or three times and just throw it out?

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Well, I can give you a snapshot of what the Synapse project is proposing because they're proposing to use this closed loop system, but yet, and that and that just means that they won't be using water on a continual basis. That doesn't mean it's fill it once and forget it. It means we fill it and then we maintain it with a regular amount. So in their AUC filings, they've stated they would need 20,000 liters of water a day. And that's boiler water that's treated that they have to have trucked into site. And then they were going to be using approximately 40,000 liters a day just for their staff and the regular kind of plant operations. And what happens with that water is it gets mixed with glycol, it gets mixed with bactericides, it gets mixed with other components, and eventually they have to flush it through the system and clean it all out and replace it again. And then all that water will be trucked off-site to a water treatment facility, whether we don't know how it can be cleaned or not, because the contaminants that are in it are something completely different and new.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

So uh the the water treatment facility, would they then put that back into the system or they would they just put it uh go through the filtration system, whatever they do, uh like they do typical sewage, and then just put it back into the rivers and lakes like we do here in Oakland.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yeah. Is that what they do?

SPEAKER_02 11:47

And then we have that is that is the plan. Yeah, they'd put it in back to wherever it would go out to the rest. Then, you know, when you look at the Palliser Grid project in Bulkan County, they're planning to have six million liters of water a day out of the reservoir. And they're planning to build their own water treatment plant. And they keep saying, oh no, we're gonna put more water back into the reservoir than we take out.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Oh, how would how would they do that?

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Um, they would have to build a very sophisticated water treatment plant that could remove all contaminants and then pump it back into the reservoir. And then that affects, you know, 25 different counties beyond that in their water supplies and goes into the South Saskatchewan River. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

So are you thinking that these companies are gonna come in? They're gonna say, no, we got a closed loop system. Uh, you know, it's gonna be fine. We're here's here's the amount of liters per day that we're going to use. Um, but then maybe change the plan once they're up and running? Like are you are you nervous about the plan changing that they propose to uh let's say the uh city or the town of Olds? Um would they would they are people nervous that these companies will come in and change what the actual standards are or what has been approved? Because we we know that that happens. That happens in oil and gas all the time. They put a pipeline in, I think, okay, there's a certain amount of H2S in here, and then they, you know, they chop it off. They change it.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Yeah, I think the biggest issue is that all of these approvals are being given on modeled studies. Nothing is being done on actual, real studied data. It's on modeled, it's on um spec. You're looking at equipment where the developer says, well, I want this kind of equipment, but I don't know if I'm gonna get that. So I'm just gonna use this for the modeling study. And so there's a very big lack of trust between these studies that are done by consultants that the developers pay for. They're not third party, they're not independent. And if the things that they promise in their application will actually come to pass or not, because once they're operating, it's often quite a different story.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Okay. So let's let's talk about energy a little bit. Because some of these people are, you know, companies are coming in and saying they're gonna, they're gonna build their own power generating system. They're gonna use gas. I think gas is probably the the the biggest reason why they're looking at the Grand Prairie area is their access to gas. They can have um, you know, their own pipelines built from the their own wells even up there. Um what's what what are we concerned about with energy on with these data centers?

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Sure. Well, um, when I look back, uh just kind of to give you a history, at first it was uh kind of free-for-all. Everyone could join the grid, and the grid or the AESO would evaluate a project and see if it was, if there was enough capacity on the grid to accommodate it. When they had over 20 gigawatts of projects apply all at the same time, they decided to implement a cap. And that was a 1200 megawatt cap for any facility that wanted to directly tie to the grid and not build their own power generation. Then, and so that was in uh June of 2025, and then now just in this June, they've implemented another um energy um system where they're going to allow uh companies to bridge their construction of their gas plants by tying to the grid for a maximum of three years, up to 1600 megawatts in total for all of the data centers. And so what that will do is temporarily increase the price of electricity that we're paying for, because we uh, if no new generation is added to the grid, the electricity that's currently there is being kind of put in a shorter supply at the benefit to these, what they call a large load uh project or a large load consumer. And so they have put in some restrictions on whether if you're going to bring your own power, that's one thing. If you want to connect to the grid, that's another thing. And then you may even fall into the hybrid format where you want to build your site, but you're going to refurbish a gas plant somewhere else and bring it back into operation, that it's not co-located with your facility. And then we now have two facilities who are co-locating a data center right at the gas plant. For example, Genesee, Capital Power. That's what they're doing. So there's there's a lot of a lot of uh fighting, trying to get space on the grid to either take inform take uh electricity off, or the people who want to move faster, they have to go on the side of trying to put electricity into the grid because that's going to move their project a lot more quickly.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

For sure. Now, you know, I think a a struggle for me, um, Gisana. And I'm I'm certainly the jury's out, right? Like um, we're using uh data center right now as we record this. It's being saved somewhere, it's not being saved up in the clouds, like you know, everybody talks about. And all of us, all of us use it all the time. You're on Instagram, you're TikTok, you're doing online banking, you're doing everything uses data centers. Um the but it seems like again, it starts to become uh like like we talked about. Well, no, actually, um, for example, cell phone towers, right? Here in Okotox, we struggle getting a cell phone tower up because everybody complains about it. Nobody wants it in their backyard. Uh, but we complain that um the signal is so poor, but oh my gosh, don't put that up in my backyard, right? Um there and in with the data centers, and this is a little bit my struggle, okay. We're using it, um, we're using it all the time, plus the economic benefits. Like, um, as uh, you know, like if I I I can't only imagine myself as being a counselor for the city of Alds, and somebody comes in and they want to put a $10 billion project in. And knowing how jurisdictions, municipalities are struggling for finances right now, like what an economic benefit uh any kind of business uh talking about a $10 billion uh injection into the economy would do, right? So that's I think where there's obviously a struggle. We don't, we become against almost everything that is proposed. Somebody's not happy with it. Is there, like, let's bring it back to home here a little bit, the foothills. Is there a place, is there a scenario, in your opinion, for justification of a data center in the Foothills County?

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Well, I want to go back because when you started talking about we use data centers all the time, that's very much the mainstream narrative that is being pumped out. But it's not actually true because number one, there are different types of data centers. So the data centers that we are using for Facebook and using for our cell phones and all of that, those have existed since, you know, as early as 2008, 2007 in some cases, and have been functioning quite nicely. The rapid proliferation of the city.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Can I can can you are they right now? Those ones that we're using like for Facebook and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Yeah, they're located in like warehouse buildings in downtown Calgary. If you look at up, there's actually a place online where you can um look up all of the data center locations in Alberta. They're already shown on a map. I don't have it off the top of my head. But the difference is those data centers are operating and have different power needs than the hyperscale AI data center. And it is the development of artificial artificial intelligence that is the strain on the resources and how it is very different from the data centers that we are currently using. And you have to think about it. Was your cell phone and your Facebook and your Instagram and all of that, your online banking, was that all working up until like last year? Perfectly fine? Did you run into any problems? Yes. Do you think we need like, I mean, we were using it. Does it's not like um everything was functioning? So now we're not gonna be able to get along without these new hyperscale data centers. And to come back to the foothills one, I actually like the location of that. I like that it is in a commercial area and so on. What I didn't like about the company is that they didn't even know what they were talking about when they had their open house. And if they didn't know what they were talking about, then that means Foothills County didn't know what they were talking about either. And they didn't consider a lot of the risks that were being there. And the first one I noticed was they needed to build a 400 megawatt substation in all of their presentation documents, in every piece of paper I found. They had no idea they had to go to the AUC to get approval for that. So the biggest thing is I think, you know, my my issue is municipalities, I don't feel, have enough in-house expertise to be able to fully evaluate these proposals. The AUC does not regulate them, but the AUC has the expertise to evaluate them. So they have no jurisdiction, but it's actually needs to come under their jurisdiction, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Right. Okay. I love I love the fact that you're not 100% dead set against data centers. I th I that's awesome. Like I and I thought that was the position you were you were going to take. And uh no, that certainly um opens the uh the things up. Foothills regional pipeline that just came through. Do you do you think with the previous Foothills administration, data centers were maybe a part of that uh pipeline equation?

SPEAKER_02 21:31

They are flat out across every municipality. Everybody must have gotten instructions all at the same time to adjust all their bylaws, to make all of their uh definitions very concrete. And see, this is where the difference in data centers comes up. Foothill County on that uh Beacon data center said that it cannot be used for AI. It could be used for the other things cryptocurrency, data storage, cloud computing, yada, yada, but no AI development. So There is a difference, but every county has their own definitions and their own way of dealing with data centers. But provincially, it's a push right across the board. Sturgeon County, Parkland County, Wheatland, every county I've come across was pushing data center legislation last year, last summer.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Right. And it seems like what they're they're doing is they're putting all these proposals out there. I don't know if they're actually going to build in all the, like let's say everybody got every municipality gave them the green light. They're probably not going to build them all. They're just, you know, taking a shot of the dark to see w which municipality is going to open up, right? Like Olds jumped all over. It seemed like it was going to be the path of least resistance. And then all of a sudden they ran into the residents and all of a sudden they realized they had a pretty big fight on their hands, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:43

So Olds has a big problem with internal processes. And I don't know if you've seen the recent leaked emails. There's a guy on YouTube that has leaked emails. And Olt's people did a number of Freedom of Information Act requests, and they found out all kinds of information. Like the lead of their economic development arm was told by the developer of Sunats, he says, Well, it's a $7 billion project. Could you pump it up to 10? Because I need my investors to be able to take me seriously. Sure, no problem, Jason. That sounds good. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's that's not good.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

It is, but that's a very specific situation.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Yeah. So, okay, so obviously there's justification for data centers, but it seems like you're saying that there's certain things that you don't want the data center to be used for. Like it seems like can you can you can you dive into that a little bit more? Like some of the the different levels of AI. Is that kind of the direction that you were headed in?

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Well, for me, I haven't gone down that rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and all of that. When I look at the science and the facts, that's enough for me. I know that I feel opposed to a particular project because of the information that it presents about itself. So I look at each of them independently. However, when I look at somebody like Beacon, and this will speak to your real estate heart, they are going around and just prospecting and collecting land. They, you know, initiated the processes like they started their company in 2023. In 2024, they applied on everything to the grid. They still don't even have any projects today, but they've got their place in line, their queuing, and they're land prospectors. And I suspect that this is one of the big dangers. They'll get the project, they'll approve it, and then it'll be gone for sale. And then we have no idea what's going to happen to it after that. And that's a big concern in the renewables world too, is that flipping.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yeah, you're you're right. Because that does happen all the time, right? Let's go uh, let's acquire some land, let's figure out where we can build this and then let's sell it off. And then all of a sudden you have a different company come in with a different vision for what they actually want to build. And now everything changes, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

And while a new owner still has to follow the conditions and the regulations of that original approval, they'll have a different way of doing things. And they become further away from scrutiny the more sales there are. And then landowners also have a little bit less recourse because they don't know who they're dealing with anymore when they've dealt with another company for previous years.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

But right. Do you see this? Do you see this as a concern at the Beacon uh data center proposal as this happening as well?

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Right. You know, to prepare for this last night, I did a deep dive on Beacon and I actually found out a bunch of stuff that I have to keep confidential right now because it may be very, very, very serious. But it's only like the problem is even the AUC doesn't do due diligence on the corporate entity. They trust and take this person's word for it. So, in the example of Beacon, a foreign investor is actually only entitled to control 20 acres of land in Canada without a specific exemption. They applied and they got an order in council passed just for them, which grants them 8.8 square kilometers of land to develop their data centers now. They're a foreign entity based in New York. And if you look up on their website, they list their parent company is called Nadia Partner. You go and you look at what they're doing and they have a mailbox address in Manhattan and a virtual secretary as their corporate headquarters. And this is what they're doing in Alberta. So the ordering council actually also gives them the freedom for any of their subsidiaries or future entities to take over the rights that they've been given. So they can create shell corporation after shell corporation after shell corporation and bring investment into Alberta, and we'll have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Yeah. Um, and who's changed that? Is that the Alberta government that has kind of changed that and allowed people to investors, foreign investors to acquire more than 20 acres of land?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Um, the only two investors they've allowed it for so far are Beacon and Meta. So they were done uh in orders and council, uh, like I said, back uh this was October 29th of 2025. And Meta was under a different name. It's called Vibro Information Systems or something, or you know, stakeholder engagement arm. And then Beacon was under Beacon's name. So I also kind of went back and looked through the Alberta lobbying registry today and found how long Beacon has been lobbying various entities in the Alberta government and started back in early 2024. And I'm like, man, you guys worked hard. You just got yourself like the golden ticket here. And and Alberta stands to lose their shirt.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Sorry, and why do you say that? Because all the investment dollars will go to the United States or to the investors or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Well, there's a certain level of transparency that is not required in Alberta when we're looking at corporate structures for limited partnerships or a general uh partnership. And when a company comes in and they set up under a limited partnership, they don't have to disclose who their investors are. So we're looking at the Nadia partners who are in New York and they are a venture capitalist firm doing private fund investment. And they have no way to be able to show us or we have no reason to make them show us who their investors are. And they don't have to tell us. So it's left up to them to do their own vetting on the quality of those investors. Are they related to crime? Are they related to fraud? Are they related to what? We have no control over that whatsoever. And that's the problem that they've set up for themselves here. Because when you look at how the company is structured, um, for example, on the Indus hearing right now, uh, they put out a corporate structure like an org chart, and they show how they have set up these very intricate financial protection so that basically nobody could be touched in the event of a bankruptcy or a natural disaster or an emergency where they just walk away. And and we've left ourselves in a giant, giant loophole in regards to bacon and in regards to Meta, because Meta got the same deal.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

For sure. Okay. So backing it up, Beacon, is Beacon the name of the company that wants to do this? Is that where we're getting the the beacon name in?

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Beacon Beacon is the one Beacon is the one doing the one in foothills, and they have five other projects around the province.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Okay. Is it is it is all are all the provinces getting hit like Alberta, or is it because there's a few loopholes in Alberta that maybe we're getting a few more, a little bit more attention?

SPEAKER_02 29:39

Um, the biggest draw to Alberta is the deregulated energy market. The fact that we have an open market for energy development here. The only other uh semi-open market is Ontario. So, like renewables, Alberta had a massive target on its back because of our deregulated energy system. And then, like you say too, it's jurisdictionally it's weak when it comes to um investors and disclosures. So people can definitely take advantage of that weakness.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Okay, so let's explain it to me like I'm five. What is the best scenario uh for uh a data center to be built in Foothills County?

SPEAKER_02 30:25

The best scenarios would be to locate it either in the Foothills Industrial Zone, which is the Highway 2A corridor there, because that has been designated already as industrial area or agricultural transition lands, because they will eventually transition to commercial, is how it was set up, I believe, 2013, if I'm not correct, or if I'm right. And um, if we have areas where, for example, gravel pit needs to be reclaimed, can't be used for something else. If we got uh, you know, old sites that were involved with oil and gas, maybe they've been abandoned, but you know, they still have a decent footprint. I I I for me the biggest thing is it's gotta be in an industrial zone and it's gotta be away from homes because the impacts can be felt up to five kilometers away.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Uh and those impacts are sounds.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

The impacts is that yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, so that's those are those are three things. Like if uh it's you find the right location and it's far enough away from people, residences, you could see a justification for putting a and and sorry, what's the what's the radius of the furthest person that needs to be away from that spot? Three kilometers, five kilometers?

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Five kilometers would be my drop dead minimum because my actual recommendation is 10. So um, especially in the infrasound world, a 10 kilometer radius, the the wavelengths of those sound waves are so completely different, they travel much greater distances than the higher frequency sounds do. So um, yeah, there have to be setbacks. There has to be appropriate consultation. And I think that there also has to be basically like a community impact analysis because I don't, I've not seen a single developer yet do a labor market analysis or any other kind of social economic analysis of how they're going to impact the area that they're choosing to go in. It's mostly on a wing in a prayer. We're coming, we're bringing 3,000 jobs, we have this much tax revenue, and we're diversifying your economy. Thank us very much. But often, even those claims are very inflated because even the tax services or tax assessment division of municipal affairs has stated on the public record, they have no idea how any of these facilities are going to be taxed until they get to the construction phase. So any of these companies, or even the premier herself, who says a hard number on what tax expectations we should expect, are lying through their teeth. Okay. Because Municipal Affairs gave a presentation to the town of Ole to go over this very specifically in relation to the Synapse data center.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Okay. So we got the we got the three points. What about the last two points in regards to power and water? Like how would you see uh I in a perfect world, how would you see the Beacon Foothills AI Center be powered and uh how much water would they use?

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Well, ideally, they have a couple of options. I wouldn't mind seeing them connect to the grid if they were finding a way to add more generation to the grid because the the way the grid operates is you can't have a surplus and you can't have a shortage of energy. It basically has to be balanced all the time with what you're using as to what's being put on. But I did hear a rumor they were thinking about co-locating themselves by the Mazepa gas plant. I thought that's not a bad idea. I do know there are a few houses out there, but I do know that they are also relatively distant from that gas plant. And uh regarding water, I think that there's, you know, kind of a an illusion that air cooling and closed loop cooling are the only ways to go. Well, I think that those are the most cheap ways to go, the least cost to the developers, because there are more sophisticated systems that basically use zero water, but we don't hear about them because they are highly expensive. And even the closed loop systems haven't been proven to work in a data center context in any real project in Canada or the US yet. So it's really a theory. It is not a proven concept. And in fact, the AUC just asks an app in their last round of questions that came out last week saying, you need to show us some real world examples where this has actually been implemented and it's actually in use. So the even, you know, it it's such brand new territory and they they claim it's the save all of our water. We go closed loop. Yeah, there's all other kinds of problems that come with.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah, for sure. No, okay. Well, yeah, this is very fascinating. And I would imagine, okay, like just backing it up to the sound, like, you know, um, being able to build some some barriers or, you know, I obviously it would be greatly expensive, but to build them in the ground, right? Like, you know, there's there's certainly different options. And um, yeah, I guess, you know, I I do really appreciate the fact that you are no way, not in my backyard, never, you know, this is not gonna happen. I appreciate the fact that you are open to um, you know, to because I think you I think we all realize the the great potential that's there, but obviously there's a a lot of things that need to be ironed out. Um it'd be great if uh some of those uh investment dollars would stay at home and not uh leave. Um obviously I think there there needs to be, yeah, some flags that go up when um all these American companies are trying to shop up in Canada. What is it? Like, you know, are they they figuring that Canada is is weaker, that we can we can uh come up to them, but also, you know, it seems like it is a little bit of a race all of a sudden. It's a race uh that in 10 years, 10 years, the technology could be completely different and they're throwing satellites up in the skies, and our data centers are all being stored up there. So many different things.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Uh you can I just interrupt for a second? For me, it comes down to one phrase data centers done right. They need to be done correctly. If they are done correctly, they can be a huge economic benefit. I like the fact that we're exploding our natural gas reserves. Originally I thought that was going to get shipped off somewhere, and they're not just gonna keep it all here and burn it into the atmosphere for all burn correct and not in a hurry. Like the fact that everybody has their foot on the gas right now is a very big cause for concern.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

To do business with Canada. They're against everything you're doing because I feel that you are, you know, asking the right questions, like uh questions that have been kind of uh been dismissed. Uh here's what needs to transpire, as opposed to opening up uh the entire province for open for business on data centers. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Well, we we we really need to not repeat the mistakes that have already happened south of the border. And the mistakes that are happening there right now, I mean, they have the attention of Erin Brockovitch. And she has started her own website and shows all of the data centers across the states. Why would we want to repeat those mistakes? But Alberta has a history of being reactive and not proactive.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

So for sure. Well, I appreciate your time. I have a feeling you're gonna come on again. They get involved. What kind of can they join a Facebook site? Is there any emails or website or where are we at in regards to contacting with people that are concerned in the area?

SPEAKER_02 37:49

Yeah. I have just, just, just created a Facebook page and it's called Foothills Beacon AI Watchdog. So I'm gonna be getting it all up to speed over the next couple of days here with group rules and all that kind of fun stuff and a bunch of uh background information so that people can kind of start to learn the things that they need to know about the the fundamentals of such a project. And I mean, I'm on Facebook as well, just under my name, if anybody wants to reach out to me that way. Uh, I do have a uh Proton Mail account, Save Our Farms and Flyway, all one word at Proton.me. And I have a Rumble channel by the same name, Save Our Farms and Flyway, where I've archived all of the AUC hearings that have taken place over the last three and a half years so that landowners and people can actually watch what happens there, start to get a fee for understanding the system in that way, especially if they're going to be having a hearing in their future.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Friend, thank you for your time. I appreciate I appreciate your expertise. And uh yeah, I I guess I I just encourage all people listening to this to stay engaged, stay active, uh, stay in the know. Um, and you know, the the nice thing is, is um I'm starting to get to know a few of the foothills uh counselors um over the last year and a half or so. And I feel you have the right people in place. I feel that there's uh there's good people there that obviously want what's best for foothills. And if there's investment dollars, they're not gonna turn away investment dollars, but I think they have the best interest of the people in mind. Um and uh I think Foothills County people can can rest in that fact, but not relax in that fact, but still need to be uh aware of what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Well, and I'm gonna step into my advocacy role and agree to disagree with you on the Foothills County Counselor, but hopefully they will be able to uh become informed and uh see the light in a few different ways as we move forward with the uh beacon data.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

I uh look forward to having you back on and I do appreciate your expertise.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

I'm so glad to be able to share and hopefully inform people along the way. That's really my most important thing in life is to make sure people have accurate and relevant information. Awesome. Thanks again, Carl.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

Right on. Thanks for your time. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

Bye.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

A big thank you to Jay Sana for joining me and sharing her research and perspective. I think the biggest takeaway from this conversation is that discussions don't have to be simply for or against data centers. There may be tremendous economic opportunities for Alberta, but that doesn't mean we should rush into decisions without fully understanding the potential impact on nearby residents, farmland, water, energy, and the surrounding environment. As Jay Sana said, it comes down to data centers done right. That means choosing appropriate locations, establishing reasonable setbacks, completing proper community impact assessments, providing transparent information, and making sure the promises made during the approval process are actually followed. If you want to learn more about the proposed beacon project, Jaisana has created the Foothills Beacon AI Watchdog Facebook page. You can also find her work through Save Our Farms and Flyways. As always, stay engaged, ask questions, and take the time to learn about the decisions that could shape our communities for decades to come. Thank you for listening to the Okatokes Podcast. If you found this conversation valuable, please share it with someone who should hear it and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

That's it for today's episode of the Okatokes Podcast. Big thanks to Carlin Lutzer Real Estate for making it happen. And thanks to you for listening.