AI announcement said to bring "significant" jobs, economic growth to B.C.

Telus CEO Daren Entwistle. PNimg

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In the midst of Canada’s growing efforts to unhinged our economy from the United States, the federal government announced today that a large artificial intelligence infrastructure project will be built in B.C. to support the rest of the country with this emerging technology.

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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 building in Vancouver Monday.

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“It’s the infrastructure that Canada needs to compete in the age of AI … at a time when the political realignment is happening as fast as the technological acceleration.”

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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 shared concerning violence-related posts on ChatGPT, an American AI company, but it 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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Introduced by the 1978 disco hit Le Freak by Chic, which tells listeners to “freak out,” Telus CEO Darren Entwistle said the infrastructure will include expanding an existing centre in Kamloops, as well as building two new centres in Vancouver, in Mount Pleasant this year and West Georgia by 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,” Entwistle said.

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He said this would create $9 billion in economic value to B.C., and create more than 1,000 construction jobs and hundreds of jobs in the centres.

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It has been documented that large AI facilities are harmful to the environment, for reasons that include increased electricity demand, air pollution and massive water consumption.

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Officials at Monday’s announcement argued the AI infrastructure would be built in B.C. “responsibly and sustainably.”

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One example, Entwistle said, is that rain water will be collected from the top of B.C. Place Stadium to be used in the Vancouver centres.

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The officials promised this would amount to “one of the most significant economic and technology announcements B.C. has seen in years.”

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They claimed this would put B.C. at the centre of Canada’s AI industry, creating jobs and economic growth.

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More to come …

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