The debate over data centres has officially arrived in Toronto. City councillors are questioning the impact of two proposed projects and whether the city is even able to properly assess the strain they will place on local infrastructure.
The concern is being driven from the wards where the projects are planned. Two local councillors have raised questions about the developments proposed in their areas, with one summing up the frustration by saying that if this were a cookie factory, they would not be there at all.
The first flashpoint is in Scarborough. In a motion presented to Toronto City Council, a councillor is seeking more information about an expansion planned for the American data centre operator Stack Infrastructure, after more than 100 people showed up at a public meeting two weeks ago demanding answers on the strain on the power grid, water resources and noise levels.
A second project has drawn similar scrutiny in Etobicoke. There, another councillor has brought a motion asking city staff to study a proposed Microsoft data centre at Lowes Place and to find ways to minimise its impact on nearby residents.
Underpinning both motions is a worry that the approvals could outpace the rules. All of this is happening while the city is still working on a broader policy strategy for data centres, and the Scarborough motion specifically asks that the project not get ahead of that work, with the councillor describing the situation as flying the plane while building it.
Toronto is far from alone in wrestling with the question. The debate is playing out across the wider region, with Mississauga councillors voting to hold off on new data centres while the city studies their impact, and Hamilton councillors rejecting a similar proposal earlier this month over concerns it could threaten new investments.
For critics, the trade-offs do not add up. They argue that data centres give back to the community almost entirely through taxes rather than jobs, and that after a construction boom the facilities tend to become self-contained, with the Scarborough expansion said to be larger, set in the middle of a residential neighbourhood, and expected to bring only about 30 jobs.
At the political level, the city's leadership has so far kept its options open. Asked about the projects, Mayor Olivia Chow did not specify whether she would support a moratorium, even as some point out that a large data centre already operates on Front Street with most people unaware it is there.