Telus and government officials claim this is “one of the most significant economic and technology announcements B.C. has seen in years.”
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The federal government announced Monday a large artificial intelligence infrastructure project will be built in B.C. to support this country “in the global AI economy” — as Canada pushes to unhinge itself from the United States.
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“What does digital sovereignty look like?” Evan Solomon, federal minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation, asked a crowd at the Telus headquarters in Vancouver on Monday. “It looks like Canadian companies building things that will function under Canadian law, free from the coercion of others … at a time when the political realignment is happening as fast as the technological acceleration.”
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This project is predicted to deliver $9 billion in economic value to B.C., and create more than 1,000 construction jobs and 525 permanent jobs in three new data centres.
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Telus CEO Darren Entwistle said the project entails expanding its existing facility in Kamloops to create an “AI factory” as well as building two new centres in Vancouver. A data centre named M3 is scheduled to open in Mount Pleasant this year and expand over the next two years, and a location on West Georgia is anticipated to open in 2029.
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“These AI factories are the first projects … to advance under the federal government’s initiative of enabling large scale, sovereign AI data centres,” said Entwistle said.
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The centres are projected to scale B.C.’s infrastructure by more than 60,000 GPUs, or graphics processing units, which are used to train AI models. This can serve private and public organizations that use AI, ending a need to send their data and intellectual property outside the country.
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Solomon said it is important for Canada’s data to remain under Canadian jurisdiction, pointing to the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge in which nine people, mostly children, were killed. The shooter, a teenager, had posted violence-related posts on ChatGPT, an American AI company, which did not warn police.
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“Canadians expect us to safeguard their privacy, online safety, and protect democratic trust in the digital age, and you know this more than anything in B.C., after the horrific tragedy at Tumbler Ridge,” Solomon said.
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AI has come under fire for additional reasons, including privacy and intellectual property rights.
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But B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon said he still supports the expansion of this technology. “We need as a country to take care of ourselves. … And all of this takes data, and it takes a lot of it.”
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Kahlon added that government must safeguard against creating more vulnerabilities for youth and others who use AI. He pledged to speak with Solomon about “the regulations that they need to put in place so we can avoid a Tumbler Ridge situation.”
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If the province doesn’t believe Ottawa goes far enough in future AI-protection regulations, then B.C. is prepared to pursue its own legislation, Kahlon told Postmedia on Monday.
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Ottawa has long promised, but delayed, the release of a national AI strategy. When asked about this Monday, Solomon said government has announced six pillars for the strategy, including safeguarding Canadians and building global alliances, but is taking the time needed to get the policy “right.”
