Huge protest against Vancouver AI data centres sparks response from Telus

A massive protest march against the proposed cluster of AI data centres in Vancouver over the weekend has prompted a response from Telus, one of the companies behind the project.

The Canadian telecommunications giant contacted Daily Hive just hours after the demonstration throughout the streets of Vancouver drew hundreds of people.

The group behind the protest march, No AI Data Centres in Vancouver, is also planning a second march during the last weekend of June.

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Telus announced earlier in May that it was moving ahead with plans to build a major sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure network in British Columbia.

This includes new AI data centres at two Westbank properties in Vancouver that could become fully operational before the end of this decade.

“We view our investment in Canada’s sovereign AI backbone as a critical national asset – for Canadians, by Canadians – estimated to inject $9 billion into the Canadian economy and safeguarding our nation’s most sensitive data,” a Telus representative told Daily Hive.

“We have applied our core sustainability principles to our AI Factories, because we believe Canada should lead the AI revolution without compromising on its climate leadership. Designed to be the world’s most sustainable sovereign AI data centres, our Vancouver facilities will set a new global standard for sustainable AI infrastructure.”

Torin LaRocque, an initiator of No AI Data Centres in Vancouver, previously shared that one of the top negative issues surrounding the proposed facilities is their impact on the environment.

“Telus states that the new AI Data Centres use 90 per cent less energy than the average centre,” said the Vancouver resident. “However, they also state that they will have more than 60,000 GPUs on the conservative side.

“[If] each GPU will process an AI prompt a day, that is still over 1,400 litres of water being used a day. Vancouver is already under Stage 2 water restrictions. Why should we let these data centres use the water that Vancouver’s population needs?”

Telus responded by saying that its AI Data Centres will be powered by 98 per cent renewable energy from BC Hydro using a closed-loop liquid cooling system.

The telecommunications company added that it will be 80 per cent more energy-efficient than a traditional data centre and consumes 90 per cent less water, equal to an estimated 300 million litres saved each year.

“Rather than expelling waste heat into the atmosphere, our facilities are engineered to capture it and feed it directly into Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Energy Utility in Mount Pleasant and Creative Energy’s downtown district energy system, heating the equivalent of 150,000 homes in Metro Vancouver, effectively using every electron twice, to produce environmentally responsible Sovereign AI infrastructure,” explained Telus.

The No AI Data Centres in Vancouver protest march drew an estimated 750 people on Saturday, May 23, in Downtown Vancouver.

Participants met at Waterfront Station, marched down Granville Street and over the bridge to Granville Island, and proceeded to head to Vancouver City Hall, where several speakers spoke to the large crowd.

“Once we arrived at City Hall, we were able to have a few speeches, including Emily Lowan, the Leader of the BC Green Party, Solomon Yi-Kieran, COPE Vancouver City Council candidate, as well as myself,” shared LaRocque. “The message I spread included that the protest does not end today. Keep protesting online, in person, by signing the petition, and demanding change from our leaders.

“Everyone who attended brought so much energy and enthusiasm to the march; it was inspiring. While some people may have felt a bit worried about whether our protest and petition will cause change, the majority are hopeful in coming together as a collective effort.”

Telus is working with the Government of Canada and Westbank on the proposed cluster of AI-focused data centres. The project forms part of the federal government’s Enabling Large-Scale Sovereign AI Data Centres initiative, aimed at strengthening Canada’s domestic AI infrastructure.

The Vancouver-based company noted the three-site B.C. network will eventually scale to more than 60,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) and 150 megawatts of computing capacity by 2032. One of the facilities is planned for Kamloops, which is expected to launch later this year.

According to BC Hydro, the utility and the Province are taking a “managed and phased approach to serving these large new loads to protect affordability and reliability for residential customers.”

No AI Data Centres in Vancouver is planning to hold a second protest march on Saturday, June 27, at 1 p.m.

The demonstration will begin at Waterfront Station, head to 150 W. Georgia St. — which is a proposed site for an AI Data Centre — and continue across the Cambie Bridge before concluding at Vancouver City Hall.