{"id":83406,"date":"2026-06-11T04:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T04:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/83406\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T04:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T04:52:10","slug":"mark-carney-adviser-says-ai-data-centres-provide-markets-for-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/83406\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Carney Adviser Says AI Data Centres \u2018Provide Markets\u2019 for Gas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[Editor\u2019s note: This story is being published in collaboration with DeSmog<\/a>, a global climate investigations outlet.]\n <\/p>\n

The artificial intelligence strategy announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney in early June promised to create<\/a> hundreds of thousands of new jobs, boost Canadian productivity and help domestic AI companies, with \u201ca clear goal of improving the lives of all Canadians,\u201d according to the prime minister. <\/p>\n

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But a top advisory body to Carney\u2019s Liberal government has also quietly identified another policy goal that wasn\u2019t mentioned in the hotly anticipated \u201cAI for All\u201d road map<\/a>. One of the top \u201cpublic policy benefits to Canada\u201d of constructing a national network of data centres is creating new markets for Canadian natural gas producers. <\/p>\n

An internal Privy Council document from 2025 explained that the build-out of vast electricity-consuming data centres across the country can \u201cprovide markets for Canadian energy\u201d and lead to \u201cnet new energy resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document, entitled \u201cInvestments in Canadian Data Centres,\u201d was obtained by Greenpeace Canada and shared with DeSmog and The Tyee following a release under the Access to Information Act. It was prepared for the clerk of the Privy Council, one of the top advisers to Carney. <\/p>\n

A list of proposed data centres, which provide the computing power for AI, gives clarity on what kind of energy resources the federal government hopes to grow. Massive data centres proposed for Alberta, including the Kevin O\u2019Leary-backed Wonder Valley project<\/a>, will have their energy needs \u201csupplied by natural gas,\u201d the Privy Council document reads.<\/p>\n

Carney could have insisted as part of his AI strategy that data centres be powered by renewable energy, said Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada. But Stewart said the document shows that the federal government views AI as part of a fossil fuel growth strategy.<\/p>\n

“This makes it clear that one of the main reasons that the Carney government wants to expand AI data centres is that so Big Oil can sell more gas,” Stewart said.<\/p>\n

The Privy Council Office didn\u2019t answer detailed questions by publishing time.<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

Doubts about net zero<\/p>\n

A key goal of Carney\u2019s AI strategy is for 60 per cent of businesses to adopt AI<\/a> by 2034, up from about 12 per cent currently. The Liberal government plans to support that goal with a $700-million fund to boost AI use among small and medium-sized businesses. <\/p>\n

All of that AI use will require a vast expansion of computing power in Canada. And the data centres that provide that power in turn require huge amounts of electricity. That has attracted the interest of Canada\u2019s fossil fuel industry, which for years has predicted that data centres could drive up domestic demand for gas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia last year met with the Calgary-based company TC Energy, which operates a large network of natural gas pipelines across North America and owns gas-fired power plants.<\/p>\n

According to a separate backgrounder prepared for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, also obtained by Greenpeace, Sabia and TC Energy discussed how proposed data centres in Alberta could connect to the company\u2019s natural gas pipeline network. \u201cEnergy availability and connection continues to be a key rate limiter in how quickly Canada will be able to scale its AI infrastructure,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n

But the document acknowledged powering data centres with gas could impact Canada\u2019s progress towards climate goals. \u201c[Natural Resources Canada] officials note that Federal responses to potential proposals will need to balance federal desire to reach net-zero emissions with provincial desires to attract investment and stimulate economic growth,\u201d it reads. <\/p>\n

TC Energy didn\u2019t respond to questions about the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gargantuan\u2019 gas projects<\/p>\n

The AI data centre proposals in the Privy Council document included two projects in B.C. and Quebec, both of which would be powered by hydroelectricity. These are relatively small projects, each requiring less than 100 megawatts of electricity.<\/p>\n

Projects proposed for Alberta are massive in comparison. O\u2019Leary\u2019s Wonder Valley data centre park would require 7.5 gigawatts of energy, all of it supplied by natural gas. That\u2019s potentially enough energy to power<\/a> more than 6.5 million homes. <\/p>\n

Wonder Valley is a \u201cgargantuan\u201d proposal that would involve constructing one of the 10 biggest gas plants proposed right now in the world, according to Norway-based energy and climate analyst Ketan Joshi. A separate Gryphon Digital proposal in Alberta meanwhile requires four gigawatts of gas-powered energy, while the Beacon AI project is proposing two gigawatts worth of gas, the document notes. <\/p>\n

Natural gas is plentiful and cheap in Alberta, said Werner Antweiler, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia\u2019s Sauder School of Business. <\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"image<\/p>\n

Got Questions About AI Data Centres in Vancouver? Here Are Answers<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s coming out of the ground, it’s not transported anywhere,\u201d Antweiler said. \u201cSo you don’t have to pay for the pipelines \u2014 it’s locally cheap. That basically gives you a lower marginal cost than if you build a data centre running on natural gas somewhere in the United States where you have to actually get the natural gas pipeline there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Privy Council document lists about 15.5 gigawatts of new gas capacity planned for data centres in Canada, although it notes that \u201cit will not be possible for Alberta to connect all data centre projects in the short term\u201d to the electric grid. Carney\u2019s new AI strategy puts forward a lower estimate, suggesting that Canadian projects will require 5.5 gigawatts of power. <\/p>\n

If the high-end scenario of 15.5 gigawatts materializes, it could cause an increase of somewhere between 33 and 63 megatonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions, Joshi calculates, \u201ceffectively undoing the past 15 years of emissions reductions in Canada.\u201d <\/p>\n

But even at the lower end the climate impacts are daunting. \u201cI am genuinely shocked by the size of these projects,\u201d said Joshi. \u201cIf a tenth of these fossil-fuelled data centres were to be built, the increase in Canada’s emissions would be noticeable and substantial.\u201d <\/p>\n

Antweiler concurred that the very large size of the multiple data centres being proposed for Alberta \u2014 all powered by natural gas \u2014 will lead to a huge increase in Canada\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions, even at the lower end of projections.<\/p>\n

He calculated that four gigawatts of new gas-powered data centre capacity \u201cwould come to 10 megatonnes of CO2 per year, or about a 3.7 per cent increase in Alberta\u2019s CO2 emissions.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Privy Council document doesn\u2019t mention climate change, however. \u201cThese projects offer a number of public policy benefits to Canada,\u201d it states. \u201cIn addition to the development of net new energy resources, Canada has an economic and innovation interest in seeing domestic AI data centre capacity grow.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

Expansion of gas<\/p>\n

Clean electricity regulations brought in under the previous Liberal government of Justin Trudeau would have limited the amount of fossil fuels that could be used to power data centres. <\/p>\n

But those regulations were significantly weakened<\/a> in the memorandum of understanding that Carney signed last year with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, an agreement that also paved the way for a new oil pipeline to the west coast of B.C. and a $20-billion carbon capture and storage<\/a> project in the Alberta oilpatch. <\/p>\n

Lobbying records show that the Alberta electricity company Capital Power, which is developing gas-powered data centre projects in the province, lobbied the federal government<\/a> close to 40 times in the lead-up to the MOU announcement. <\/p>\n

Carney\u2019s AI strategy insists that \u201cCanada\u2019s approach will be to link new data centre development with clean energy expansion, robust environmental standards, and tangible benefits for local communities, ensuring that Canada remains at the forefront of sustainable high-performance computing infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his government released a National Electricity Strategy in May that frames expansion of gas<\/a> as a key factor in doubling Canada\u2019s electric grid capacity by 2050, while describing renewables as \u201cintermittent,\u201d despite solar being the fastest-growing<\/a> energy source in the world. <\/p>\n

Antweiler said building out data centres using renewables is possible \u2014 and energy sources like solar and wind can compete with natural gas on price.<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"image<\/p>\n

When the Biggest AI Data Centre Comes to Your Town<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasingly, renewable energy, even with attached storage, is getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper,\u201d Antweiler said. But he pointed out that Alberta put a moratorium on wind and solar projects in 2024. Though that has since been lifted, clean-energy advocates say<\/a> there continue to be barriers in the province for investment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s really no reason to say [data centre development] must be all done by natural gas, if they could allow renewable energy to be provided in the grid,\u201d Antweiler said. \u201cAnd then basically let the market figure out what is the right supply of electricity as opposed to saying, well, you have to have a natural gas supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Stewart the emphasis on gas, even when highly economic alternatives like wind and solar are being rapidly deployed around the world, is evidence of the continued political power of Canada\u2019s oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government could have easily said data centres have to be powered by new renewable energy sources,\u201d Stewart argued. \u201cInstead, Canadians will get dirtier air alongside higher electricity prices, all so corporate CEOs can try to take away our jobs with AI.\u201d \"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Editor\u2019s note: This story is being published in collaboration with DeSmog, a global climate investigations outlet.] The artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[32588,30228,30422,32589,26162,32590,25545,3178,32591,14019,234,32602,32592,32593,3042,32595,32596,32597,32598,111,24225,24223,32594,7078,32599,32600,32601],"class_list":["post-83406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-ai-data-centres-alberta","tag-ai-data-centres-canada","tag-ai-for-all-strategy","tag-beacon-ai-project","tag-canada-ai-strategy","tag-canada-national-electricity-strategy","tag-capital-power","tag-danielle-smith","tag-desmog","tag-ecology","tag-environment","tag-gas-powered-data-centres","tag-greenpeace-canada","tag-gryphon-digital","tag-innovation","tag-investments-in-canadian-data-centres","tag-keith-stewart-greenpeace","tag-ketan-joshi","tag-kevin-oleary","tag-mark-carney","tag-michael-sabia","tag-privy-council","tag-science-and-economic-development-canada","tag-sustainability","tag-tc-energy","tag-werner-antweiler","tag-wonder-valley-data-centre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83406","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=83406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}