When Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation went to court recently to challenge Alberta’s handling of the proposed Wonder Valley AI Data Centre Park project, the dispute underscored a question that is increasingly difficult to ignore: What does Canada’s artificial intelligence future require from land, water and energy systems?

Wonder Valley, which would be located south of Grande Prairie, has been advertised as the world’s largest AI data centre park. Alberta’s major projects listing describes its first phase as a 1.4-gigawatt off-grid power system leveraging the provincial natural gas and geothermal resources.

The project is only one example of a broader trend. The federal government’s new “AI for All” strategy links AI to economic growth, jobs and national competitiveness. The strategy also points to expanding “sovereign compute” and supporting the construction of large-scale AI data centres.

AI is resource-dependent

I wouldn’t be alive today if other men had not urged me to be tested for prostate cancer.

In March of 2023, I followed their advice and asked my family doctor to request a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test for me. I had to insist because current guidelines in Canada discourage doctors from ordering that test due to concerns about its accuracy and usefulness. Despite those concerns, I was tested and the number was quite high. I was then referred to a urologist in Winnipeg, who ordered another PSA test in order to make sure the first test result was accurate. That test came back with an even higher number.

Based on that, my urologist ordered a biopsy at CancerCare in Winnipeg and, three months after the first PSA test, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. My urologist said I would be dead in two years — that would have been last year — if it was not addressed quickly.

I had surgery three months later and I’m fine — not only because other men nudged me to get tested, but also because I had a family doctor who was willing to order the first test and then quickly referred me to a specialist. Another factor was that I was able to advocate for myself to get several diagnostic tests done quickly (by being on standby lists), in order to ensure that my surgery was not delayed while waiting for tests to be conducted.