Oakville in Ontario has put a one-year halt on new data centres, marking the first municipality in the province to do so as officials address concerns regarding the surge of facilities supporting artificial intelligence. The town’s council members have instructed staff to review current regulations to determine if updates are needed to tackle potential issues like noise, vibration, emissions, and broader land-use considerations related to data centres.
Neighboring Mississauga is also set to vote on a similar pause next month, as other Ontario municipalities explore ways to regulate the development of these facilities. Although Oakville has not received any formal data centre applications, Hive Digital Technologies revealed plans for a 320-megawatt AI facility in the Greater Toronto Area in May. Records indicate that a Hive subsidiary acquired property in Oakville shortly before the announcement.
The councillor representing the area where the property is situated sponsored the moratorium. Several municipalities in Ontario, including Hamilton and Waterloo Region, are also considering moratoriums or taking steps to study the impacts of data centres. The competition among tech giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google has driven the demand for data centres, which are crucial for training and operating advanced AI models.
While Canada currently has a limited number of large hyperscale data centres, more are in the pipeline, with Meta recently unveiling plans for a one-gigawatt data centre in Alberta. These facilities are essential as they house powerful computer chips vital for AI operations. The move by Oakville to enact a moratorium reflects the growing awareness and discussions around regulating the expanding data centre industry in the region.
