Representatives from Meta appeared before Sturgeon County council last week to defend the environmental and economic case for the company’s proposed $13-billion data centre.
Meta’s head of public policy, Rachel Curran , and community engagement regional manager, Matt Sexton, attended Sturgeon County council on Tuesday July 14, where they delivered a presentation and responded to queries about the build north of Edmonton.
“It was really the province and the county who put Alberta on our map in a very proactive way, which I have not seen from any other jurisdiction in Canada,” said Curran.
The proposed data centre is being built on a 1,750-acre plot of land and will see Meta invest $13 billion. The facility will be powered by a soon-to-be constructed plant generating 970 megawatts of electricity.
The project has been criticized sharply by those who live in Sturgeon County, as well as by international human rights organization Amnesty International.
Data centres have been scrutinized for their water and power use.
In its presentation to council, Meta committed to being a responsible steward of the environment.
“It’s either restoring local habitats, or boosting the local water supply, enhancing local water quality, and safe drinking water, those are the types of projects that help us reach our water positivity goal,” Curran said.
Alberta’s move to embrace data centres comes as other Canadian jurisdictions seem to be doing the opposite. Council in Hamilton, Ont., is preparing to vote on whether to extend a one-year moratorium on new data centres.
A similar motion is expected to be debated in Vancouver before the month’s end.
However, Curran says data centres are needed.
“If you’re using the Internet, you’re using a data centre,” said Curran.
“As a society, we’re having to build larger and larger data centres to handle all of this traffic,” Curran said. “That is now attracting attention from the communities in which data centres are located.”
Among the stipulations Meta must follow is having its water use approved under the terms of the provincial Water Act, with the company stating it will provide the public yearly updates on its website regarding how much water and energy the project uses.
It’s something Curran insists will happen, along with infrastructure investments that Meta believes will lower people’s power bills.
“The province has said it expects a six per cent reduction in the transmission portion of Albertans’ utility bills to result as a savings out of this project,” Curran said. “When we had done our initial estimates, we thought it would be closer to 10 per cent (savings).
Other outstanding issues
Council also questioned Meta about its decision to pull Canadian news following the passage of Bill C-18, the Online News Act.
Passed in 2023, the federal legislation compelled digital conglomerates like Google and Meta to compensate Canadian news organizations for content.
Google eventually agreed to pay, but Meta did not and has permanently banned Canadian news on its platforms.
While Curran said there’s hope things will change soon, she argued Meta’s actions were justified.
“These publishers share information and articles on our platforms because it benefits them in the form of distribution,” said Curran. “We have a responsibility not to do things that are going to unnecessarily exert downward pressure on our stock price.”
It was not an answer that seemed to completely satisfy Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw.
“I think when you look at the financial viability of the two, there’s not really much of a comparison between the Canadian news outlets and the bottom line of Meta,” said Hnatiw. “I’ll just say there’s some debate there.”
By David Boles, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Jul 20, 2026 at 12:44
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