Over 100 people protest against AI data centre at legislature

Over 100 protestors against an AI data centre being built just outside Port Hawkesbury, N.S. gathered outside of Province House in Halifax.

EverWind Fuels, an energy and infrastructure company, is constructing the data centre, which will be leased to Anthropic, an American AI company, to power their agent, Claude. The project was announced on Oct. 16, with site-clearing work already underway for the $10 billion project.

The protest began at noon at Nova Scotia Power’s waterfront headquarters. Protestors then marched through downtown Halifax, ending in front of Province House on Hollis Street, where they held signs, chanted and gave speeches against the project. 

There are more protests being organized against the data centre in Nova Scotia, including ones in Kentville, Sydney, Halifax, Port Hawkesbury and others on Nov. 7.

The data centre is set to be fully operational by 2028, beginning operations in 2027. It will generate over 2,000 jobs during construction and 215 during operation, according to EverWind.

EverWind says $2 billion of the project’s cost will go to building onshore wind farms to power the data centre and provide green energy to the province . At full capacity, the project is set to use 420 megawatts, which equates to about 13.1 per cent of Nova Scotia’s current energy generation capacity.

“Out of all the things that we need to work on right now, having a data centre is at the bottom of the list,” says Rebecca Demmings, a student at Dalhousie University who attended the protest. “It’s really shocking,”

Protestors also called and emailed Houston’s office to say they don’t support the project. 

Aidin Pottie is a resident of Port Hawkesbury, which borders Point Tupper, where the data centre will be constructed. He says he’s concerned that the centre is set to draw water from Landry Lake, the same place his community gets their drinking water.

His phone message was clear: “get the data centre out of my community, away from my drinking water and fuck you Tim Houston.”

The project is set to draw around 500,000 litres per day from Landry Lake, which is 1.5 per cent of the lake’s daily yield limit.

“It’s going to be going back into the lake at extreme temperatures from cooling the data centre. You’re pumping heat into our drinking water, what is that going to cause? What might grow there?” says Pottie, who is also a student at Nova Scotia Community College in Dartmouth .

Protest organizers also passed out QR Codes that link to a Nova Scotia NDP petition calling on the government to add restrictions and protections around data centres in the province.

In June, Houston said AI data centres in Nova Scotia were “far out in the future” and that the government wasn’t discussing them. He changed his stance in September, as EverWind signaled interest in building the Point Tupper data centre.

Demmings said the speed of the project, and the fact that pre-construction has already begun ‘feels like the rug has been pulled out beneath our feet.”

“It’s so offensive that they obviously did this so quickly because they knew it was controversial,” she says. “It feels like they’re tricking us, like it’s a big joke on all of us, ‘we’re going to steal your future and there’s nothing you can do about it.’”

Houston announced the project at a Friday afternoon event alongside EverWind officials and Kody Blois, the Liberal MP for Port Hawkesbury.

“This announcement is a powerful vote of confidence in Nova Scotia and our future,” said Houston in a statement on Oct. 16. “This is the kind of responsible growth that helps build a stronger, more prosperous future for Nova Scotians.”

“A private investment of more than $10 billion, the largest in our province’s history, has the potential to create thousands of jobs, strengthen rural economies, and position Nova Scotia as a leader in the growing digital and clean energy economy.”