A large majority of Canadians in a recent poll said they worry that artificial intelligence data centres will hike their power bills and harm the environment.
In the Leger poll, 81 percent of respondents said they are concerned about the prospect of data centres leading to spikes in their household electricity bills.
A similar share, 79 percent, said they worry about the environmental impacts, such as the large amounts of electricity and water data centres consume, as well as their greenhouse gas emissions.
When the survey touched on the issue of data sovereignty and asked respondents whether they support building data centres to back Canadian-based AI services, more were in favour than were opposed.
Just under half, 46 percent, said building the facilities to give Canada more control over data would be a good thing, while 37 percent said it would be a bad thing.
“We’re seeing evidence that there is a bit of a divided opinion amongst Canadians regarding the construction of these data centres around the country,” said Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president for Central Canada.
That division also emerged when respondents were asked how they felt about the prospect of AI data centres being built in their own provinces. While 44 percent said they would support such a development, 42 percent said they would oppose it.
The online survey of 1,505 people was conducted between July 10 and July 13. The Canadian Research Insights Council, an industry organization that promotes polling standards, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
Leger also found awareness of data centres among Canadians was relatively high—62 percent said they had heard of them.
The respondents were also asked about the supply of electricity to AI data centres.
Most, 58 percent, said provincial governments or electricity providers should supply electricity for AI data centres.
Just under a third said they should do so only if the companies pay the full cost of the power and any required infrastructure.
Another 31 percent said data centre companies shouldn’t be able to access public electricity and should be responsible for meeting their own energy needs.
There are plans to dramatically expand data centre capacity in Canada and the vast majority of that work is set to take place in Alberta, where the centres could draw their power from natural gas plants and not the electrical grid.
Public opposition to data centres has emerged across the country—including in Alberta—and in June, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew rejected plans for a massive data centre southeast of Winnipeg.
