{"id":170593,"date":"2026-08-17T04:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/170593\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T04:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:24:13","slug":"canadian-tribe-claims-victory-in-first-battle-against-mind-boggling-massive-ai-data-centre-te-ao-maori-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/170593\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian tribe claims victory in first battle against \u2018mind-boggling, massive\u2019 AI data centre \u2013 Te Ao M\u0101ori News"},"content":{"rendered":"

I whakaputahia tuatahia t\u0113nei \u0101tikara e APTN News<\/a> i Kanata.<\/p>\n

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (SLCN) says it has won its first legal skirmish in its battle against a proposed AI data centre on its territory.<\/p>\n

In April 2025, it asked the Federal Court to examine the government\u2019s decision to approve the project in what is called a judicial review.<\/p>\n

The data centre is being proposed by celebrity Kevin O\u2019Leary through his company O\u2019Leary Digital Limited, or ODL<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Former Dragon\u2019s Den investor was trying to have SLCN\u2019s application for a judicial review of the granting of a water license quashed.<\/p>\n

However, Court of King\u2019s Bench Justice P.K. Johal dismissed ODL\u2019s application.<\/p>\n

\u201cODL\u2019s connection to the Water Licence is both contingent and speculative, which cannot support a finding that they are directly affected by SLCN\u2019s judicial review application,\u201d Johal wrote in his ruling filed 13 August (local time). <\/p>\n

\u201cODL\u2019s alternative applications for intervenor status or to be added as a respondent are also dismissed.\u201d <\/p>\n

SLCN requested a judicial review of Alberta\u2019s approval of a water licence to the municipal district of Greenview because they hadn\u2019t been consulted. <\/p>\n

Chief Sheldon Sunshine said in a statement that this is the first legal victory. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis means that SLCN\u2019s judicial review of the Water Act Licence, including a challenge to Alberta\u2019s failure to consult at all, will go ahead in December,\u201d said Sunshine. <\/p>\n

\u201cSturgeon Lake Cree Nation is happy to have the opportunity to vindicate our Treaty rights and hold the Crown accountable on consultation. <\/p>\n

\u201cO\u2019Leary\u2019s data centre here in Alberta is a mind-boggling, massive project, which the province has been shepherding through their regulatory system using the municipality to evade their duties to us. There is no environmental assessment and next to no consultation with our nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

SLCN launched its application for a judicial review in 2025. <\/p>\n

Over several months, SLCN tried to find out more about the project, whose ownership was then identified only as a numbered company.<\/p>\n

Once the nation filed for a judicial review, ODL made itself known, according to court documents. ODL lawyers argued the review should be denied. <\/p>\n

The water license permits the municipality to divert six million cubic meters of water from the Smoky River along which SLCN has Treaty 8 reserve lands and where they \u201cexercise their traditional Treaty and Aboriginal rights.\u201d <\/p>\n

SLCN served notice of its judicial review application on the municipality of Greenview, as the water licence holder, and on Alberta for granting the water licence.<\/p>\n

ODL responded to the decision in a statement provided to APTN News<\/a> on Friday (local time).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we respect the Court\u2019s process, OD is disappointed with the decision and strongly disagrees with the continuation of this proceeding. We are currently reviewing the decision in detail and will reserve further comment until that review is complete,\u201d the statement by CEO Paul Palandjian said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outset of the Wonder Valley Project, ODL has worked in good faith to engage and consult with SLCN and other Indigenous and local communities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe Wonder Valley represents a significant opportunity for Alberta, the region and the surrounding communities, and we remain focused on advancing the project in a responsible manner under appropriate regulatory oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to court documents, ODL has plans to build a $70 billion CAD ($85.5 billion NZD) artificial intelligence data centre industrial park in the Greenview Industrial Gateway or GIG. <\/p>\n

The application heard 8 August (local time) to strike SLCN\u2019s judicial review application was on the basis that ODL, as a \u201cdirectly affected party,\u201d was not served within the timeframe prescribed under the Alberta Rules of Court. Failing that, the company requested intervenor status or to be added as a respondent to the judicial review. <\/p>\n

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation \u201cis presumptively entitled to costs. If the parties cannot agree on costs, they may provide written submissions of no more than five pages, not counting attachments, within 30 days\u201d of the decision,\u201d Johal ruled.<\/p>\n

According to facts presented to the court, \u201cthe GIG is comprised of 7,000 acres of provincial land in northwest Alberta. SLCN\u2019s Treaty lands are located within the GIG. In 2024, land within the GIG was transferred from Alberta to Greenview.\u201d<\/p>\n

Information on the province of Alberta\u2019s website regarding its AI Strategy says \u201ca data centre is a warehouse full of computers. Rows of powerful servers, stacked in racks, connected to the internet, running around the clock. You have been using them for 20 years. Every email you send lives in a data centre. Every photo you back up, every show you stream, every e-transfer you send, every medical record your doctor pulls up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It goes on to say that \u201cwhen people say \u2018the cloud,\u2019 they mean a data centre. There is no cloud. There is just somebody else\u2019s computer, in a big building, doing work on your behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

While data centre projects can create around 3,000 jobs while under construction, only about 300 permanent jobs will remain once operating, according to Alberta.<\/p>\n

According to O\u2019Leary Digital\u2019s website, it considered four locations in Alberta including \u201cGreater Calgary, Medicine Hat, the Industrial Heartland and the Municipal District of Greenview near Grand Prairie.\u201d The Grand Prairie site is where ODL found what it calls \u201ca total unicorn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need an acre per megawatt. We needed thousands of acres. We have that in the Greenview Industrial Gateway, or GIG, said Palandjian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had assembled the land. They had established permitted use of the land. They had spent a tremendous amount of time and resources in upgrading the land by improving Highway 40 and adding fiber backbone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clincher, he said, was the power. \u201cProducing power from natural gas is much cheaper than buying nuclear energy\u2026and whether you use nuclear or natural gas, they require a tremendous amount of water. Very few communities have this kind of water. The GIG does. The GIG has everything we need within close proximity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental groups and individual residents are growing increasingly vocal in their criticism of AI data centre projects, demanding stricter environmental scrutiny, transparency, and mandatory impact assessments due to concerns over the strain on water supplies and the potential to hike up utility costs and heighten the demand for fossil-fuel-generated power.<\/p>\n

Sunshine said Albertans are now seeing what Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation has been living through for 20 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe province will push these hyperscale massive data centres in our backyards despite serious concerns,\u201d Sunshine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe province\u2019s answer is \u2018just trust us\u2026,\u2019 if these massive data centres cause no harm, we ask that the province and O\u2019Leary show us all the designs, the technical reports and let us assess these too, like every other project of this scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

N\u0101 Leanne Sanders n\u014d APTN News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I whakaputahia tuatahia t\u0113nei \u0101tikara e APTN News i Kanata. Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (SLCN) says it has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4409,17],"class_list":["post-170593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}