I spent a full day at the Calgary Petroleum Club listening to presentations about the alliances between the energy sector and Alberta’s AI data centre strategy.

One of the presentations was from an insider working on the Wonder Valley project.

“It was this beautiful sky. And as we’re flying over, literally, there’s deer and moose and Travis is looking at me like, wow, everyone’s showing up today and you can see that they fell in love with this. We landed, they got off that helicopter. And then it was a call to Kevin. It was like, we found it. And from that it’s been full go.”

I’ve got the inside story in my latest post.

#ableg #cdnpoli #AIDatacentres #AI #fossilfuels

https://jodymacpherson.substack.com/p/wonder-valley-watch-inside-the-calgary

Chief Sheldon Sunshine writes to Prime Minister Mark Carney about the draft cooperation agreement giving Alberta more responsibility for impact assessments.

In a “turnabout is fair play” move, he gives Carney until March 19 to respond.

The public (including First Nations) were given a deadline of March 27 to respond to the draft agreement.

“Canada’s proposal to defer to Alberta’s basically non-existent environmental impact assessment and rubber stamp regulatory review processes will have disastrous implications, and will be antithetical to the regulatory certainty your Government seeks…”

#ableg #cdnpoli #environment #Alberta #Indigenous #UNDRIP #FirstNations #elbowsup #wondervalleyAB #AIDatacentres #AIDataCenters

https://open.substack.com/pub/jodymacpherson/p/sturgeon-lake-cree-nation-writes?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

"Beacon AI Centres, also known as Beacon Data Centres, contributed $1,500 to the UCP between July and September. In addition to Beacon’s in-house lobbyists, the company also hired Navigator to lobby the government regarding its data centre project. Navigator and two of its consultants representing Beacon contributed more than $3,600 to the party before September 2025.

In October 2025, Alberta’s government made an exemption to foreign land ownership regulations to allow the majority U.S.-owned Beacon to buy 8.8 square kilometres for the construction of five data centres."

Not to mention that Ken Hughes, former PC Minister of Energy for Alberta, is on the Beacon board of directors.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2026/03/12/PR-Firms-Lobbyists-Gave-UCP-Thousands-2025/

#AIDataCentres #ableg #cdnpoli

“We’re not a big city, we are a small town, and I don’t remember when we agreed as a small town to become a tech hub for the province or for our council. I just don’t remember that conversation happening.”

“I love Olds, it is a beautiful close-knit community, but there are no health benefits to living next to a power plant.”

A follow-up on the Olds data centre that has seen Premier Danielle Smith’s gas-powered data centre strategy encroach upon small town Alberta.

Meanwhile, I’ve just learned a protest against the Olds power plant and data centre is planned for March 23 in Calgary.

#AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #ableg #cdnpoli #AI #cdnpolitics

https://www.theenergymix.com/developer-presses-ahead-with-mega-gas-plant-after-alberta-regulator-rejects-deficient-plan/

$70 million. That’s how much the MD of Greenview has spent to develop the area where Wonder Valley is proposed.

GIG executive director Kyle Reiling told an audience at the Calgary Petroleum Club last Wednesday that the project is still “moving forward,” and recounted the journey so far.

Over the last decade, multiple councils backed effort to prepare the Greenview site for industrial projects, most recently betting it all on a gargantuan gas-powered AI data centre proposed by Kevin O’Leary.

But it started as a petrochemical hub, until that dream faded.

Read my latest report on the journey that Greenview has been on in pursuit of economic development opportunities for the region, as told by Reiling.

https://www.theenergymix.com/alberta-municipality-bets-tens-of-millions-on-wonder-valley-data-centre/

#WonderValleyAlberta #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #ableg #cdnpoli #AI #cdnpolitics