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Oct. 16, 2026

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CPA Alberta

Data centre explosion mirrors cannabis boom, event hears

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Alberta's current data centre boom bears similarity to what the cannabis industry went through in the late 2010s, a regional economic development summit hosted by CREDA Edmonton Region and the Cities Institute heard. "It's like the new cannabis run in Alberta, where everybody wanted to set up a cannabis grow-op in Alberta, and there were only a few that ended up being successful," Bronwyn Scrivens of JLL said at the Oct. 15 event. "A lot of these warehouses are now being considered for conversion into data centres because they didn't make it." She moderated a discussion featuring four panelists: Matt Sexton, the Iowa-based community engagement manager for Meta; Mark Morrissey, director of economic innovation and growth at Sturgeon County; Lyndsey Rolheiser, a researcher at York University; and Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist at the University of Alberta.

Rolheiser presented a paper that provides a comprehensive mapping of Canada's data centre landscape. Canada currently has 194 data centres with 1.6 gigawatts of capacity, but there are another 213 under construction or announced, with a planned 22.2 GW of capacity. Alberta accounts for 92% of that planned capacity. The planned sites are, on average, much larger than existing ones, with an average capacity of 122 megawatts for planned sites compared to 11 MW for active sites. The study found that the larger a project is, the more likely it is to be foreign-owned. About half of small active facilities are owned by U.S.-headquartered firms, while U.S.-headquartered firms account for 84% of project financing, 85% of providers, and 100% of backers and end-users for the planned hyperscale projects. "Costs are local — there are real costs, these include power emissions, water, and land," Rolheiser said, "and returns predominantly accrue outside of the province."

Morrissey of Sturgeon County, where Meta is building a $13-billion data centre, said the changing landscape means municipalities have to treat every project as if it's realistic, even if it doesn't seem so at first glance. "Once upon a time you could kind of look at the project proponent, and if it's Meta, Google, or Suncor, you're pretty sure that that project is somewhat realistic, whereas if it's 'Joe's Data Centres and Electrical,' maybe not," he said. "But you can't even go by that anymore now … Even the most unrealistic project only takes a proponent to come in and buy that capacity, or buy that project, or invest in that project, and it becomes real almost overnight." For his part, Leach said the economics of data centres remain opaque. "What are they selling? What's the market price for that? How do we see that price changing?" he said. "We talk about it as though there's no commodity risk here, but how can we talk about it as … no commodity risk if we don't know what the commodity is, we don't know what the price is, and we don't know what the forward price of that is?"

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  • Edmonton-region municipalities should co-ordinate infrastructure and approvals to keep housing attainable, BILD Edmonton Metro's CEO Kalen Anderson and board chair Paul Lanni argued in an opinion piece preceding the group's State of the Region Report. Some report highlights: housing construction in the region surrounding Edmonton has tripled since 2020; Beaumont was the fastest-growing regional municipality last year; apartment and row housing is growing outside Edmonton city limits; and the "Airport Corridor" of Beaumont, Leduc, Leduc County, and Devon is showing some of the most promising growth in the region. Postmedia reported on the launch event at the Royal Glenora Club, where mayors Rod Frank of Strathcona County, Lisa Makin of Fort Saskatchewan, and Alanna Hnatiw of Sturgeon County spoke about the pressures they face from constituents to control growth and taxes simultaneously. "(People tell me) we moved here for the country lifestyle — don't build anything else around us," Hnatiw told moderator Andrew Usenik of Strata Developments.
  • Edmonton-area builders started a record 31,555 homes since 2024, including 17,264 purpose-built rentals, according to a report by The Globe and Mail. Yet one in four Edmonton tenants still struggled to find a suitable rental within one-third of their pretax income.
  • Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack said the city still lacked written instructions for the province's ordered zoning rollback a week after the directive was announced, despite a three-month compliance deadline. BILD Edmonton Metro said it was also waiting for written directives, but that City of Edmonton administration said existing rules remain in effect until council enacts new bylaws. Knack is considering taking the Alberta government to court over a provincial directive requiring the city to repeal its zoning bylaw and restore minimum parking rules. Knack said the order creates a legal conflict because councillors must hold a public hearing with an open mind but have already been instructed to vote against the bylaw. Council will hold an emergency meeting on Oct. 16 to assess the directive's legal, financial and logistical implications. Knack said implementing the order will increase staff workloads and overtime costs, potentially affecting work on the city's draft four-year budget.
  • The City of Edmonton and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation should improve reporting on infill projects and consider a compliance mechanism to ensure the builds deliver on their intended use, argued Murtaza Haider, lead of the Cities Institute at the University of Alberta. "I have repeatedly asked both the City of Edmonton and CMHC to advise us on how many completed units comply with the intended use," he wrote. "The data is on its way but hasn't reached me yet. When it arrives, I'll be happy to report."
  • Private restrictive covenants can limit Edmonton infill even where zoning permits it, a legal analysis from Alberta Counsel explained. It advised property buyers and developers to check titles for restrictions and seek advice about enforceability.
  • Leduc council temporarily paused new applications for narrower townhouse lots in new areas while city staff assess the effects of 21 units already permitted or under construction. The pause concerns this lot type, not all townhouse development. At a BILD Edmonton Metro luncheon for the launch of its State of the Region Report on Oct. 15, Leduc Coun. Bretton Baynes told Taproot that the city needs to make sure it can provide adequate services as Leduc densifies.
  • The former Edmonton headquarters and distribution centre of The Brick has been sold to an unnamed buyer planning extensive renovations. A large part of the property is leased to Goodwill Industries of Alberta for its Impact Centre; the rest is on the market for $8.25 per square foot.
  • The former Army and Navy store on Whyte Avenue is leasing space after sitting empty for six years, CTV reported. Anytime Fitness has taken the basement, with room for three to five tenants upstairs. The owners hope to fill the building within a year but have not set opening dates.
  • BTB Real Estate Investment Trust has acquired a 52,197-square-foot industrial property in Acheson for $18.75 million. The property is leased to North American Construction Group.

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