Last week, EverWind announced plans to build an $8 billion AI megaproject near Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton. At full capacity, the data centre would operate at around 450 megawatts (MW) and use an estimated 500,000 litres of water per day. As the story develops, Nova Scotians are being left with serious questions about how this project could impact our communities – and few answers.
Potential impact on ratepayers
Nova Scotia has some of the highest electricity rates in Canada, and we are facing an energy affordability crisis. EverWind says it plans to build large-scale onshore wind to power the project, but until wind construction is complete, the data centre will draw power from Nova Scotia's grid. With an energy use equal to nearly one-sixth of our current electricity generating capacity, there are serious concerns about how this could affect grid stability and energy bills.
For comparison, an independent analysis in Alberta found that Meta’s new data centre is projected to increase power bills by as much as 25 per cent.
At the same time, large data centres could easily outbid government for access to new energy sources. Not only could this cause additional hikes for ratepayers, it could also mean that reliable, cheap energy like wind would be diverted away from powering the needs of the public for the sake of billionaire tech interests – leaving Nova Scotians to rely on volatile, polluting sources like coal and oil.
Potential impacts on fresh water
Because of climate change, Nova Scotians are already facing impacts on our fresh water. Just last year, droughts became so bad that the Houston government imposed a sweeping woods ban as communities throughout the province battled unprecedented wildfires.
At full capacity, EverWind says that the data centre would use an average of 500,000 litres of fresh water per year from Landrie Lake, but the company has obtained a permit from the province to use up to ten million litres per day, or 3.6 billion litres per year.
The company’s estimated daily usage is equal to roughly one per cent of the total safe withdrawal volume of Landrie Lake. However, in a province with limited freshwater and increasingly severe droughts, we question whether an AI data centre is really a responsible use of this finite resource.
Questionable players
We now know that the “leading AI company” slated to lease the data centre is San Francisco-based Anthropic – a company with ties to Palantir, Blackstone and the U.S. military, among others. Anthropic’s AI models have also repeatedly “escaped” controlled testing environments and hacked into external systems. In one case, an AI agent even sent fake tips about a murder investigation to Philadelphia police – a breach that Anthropic failed to report for at least two months. Nova Scotians have serious and legitimate concerns about allowing a corporation with such a problematic track record to operate in our province.
Furthermore, EverWind's own track record is far from clear. They have been accused of greenwashing and overstating the benefits of past projects in “green” hydrogen. They are engaging in public consultation after construction of the data centre has already begun. And just last week, they forcibly removed journalists from the announcement for the data centre project.
The freedom of the press to cover such an important issue is crucial, and EverWind's actions leave Nova Scotians wondering: if this is such a positive project, what are they trying to hide?
A lack of assessment, consultation and meaningful regulations
Despite claims from EverWind that the project will not affect ratepayers and will have minimal impact on freshwater and the environment, there are no meaningful regulations to back these claims up. Supporters of the project – including Premier Houston – point to the federal government’s new Responsible Data Centre Development Principles, but these principles are non-binding and entirely voluntary.
At the same time, public consultation on the data centre is happening after construction has already begun, and the project will not be required to undergo a proper environmental assessment or Power Purchase Agreement process.
The idea that giant corporations – whose primary function is to maximize profits – will prioritize the wellbeing of Nova Scotians and our environment out of the goodness of their hearts is naive. It has no basis in the history of how large corporate entities operate.
By abdicating their responsibility to properly assess this project or meaningfully regulate these corporations, decision makers are leaving Nova Scotians at the mercy of U.S. billionaires.
What kind of future do we want to build?
It’s true that Nova Scotia needs economic development. But as widespread opposition to the project continues to grow, we must ask ourselves: is a data centre megaproject powering a U.S.-based AI corporation really the kind of development we want for our province? Is the social good created by the project worth the risk?
Once again, we’re being told that our only options for economic growth are risky, polluting industries with ties to some of the worst corporate players in the world. But this simply isn’t true. We can invest in industries like clean energy, arts and culture, tourism, sustainable seafarming and more – industries that would support tens of thousands of good jobs here at home, generate massive revenue for our province and minimize negative impacts to our water, health and environment.
The potential impacts of EverWind’s data centre on power rates, grid stability and fresh water cannot be dismissed. We need to be able to have a serious public discussion about this that centers the energy affordability crisis, the ethics and economic realities of AI and the challenges that Nova Scotians and our environment are already facing.