Data centre / Lorneville
Let’s get this out of the way. No to data centres. They consume enormous power, employ very few people for the footprint they take, and lock prime industrial land out of better uses for two or three decades. Saint John should pursue diversified, green, locally job-dense industry instead.
Where I stand
The Spruce Lake AI Data Centre proposal (EIA registration 1663, filed by Stantec on behalf of Beacon AI Centers and VoltaGrid in April 2026) is the local case in point. It would draw 390 megawatts (190 from on-site gas generation, 200 from the NB Power grid). According to the EIA registration, it would produce roughly 1.14 million tonnes of CO2 a year, around 6.6% of New Brunswick’s total emissions. Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc. has formally notified proponents that the project may infringe on Aboriginal and Treaty Rights and is conducting a Mi’gmaq Rights Impact Assessment.
I have looked at the proposal. The trade is bad. New Brunswick gets a few permanent jobs and major industrial-scale demand on a power grid we are already trying to decarbonize, while the company gets cheap power, cheap water, and cheap land.
Data centres are not part of a supply chain. There are no local suppliers, no local customers, no catalysts for other industry. The assets that make the industrial park competitive: the port, the rail network, the skilled trades, would be wasted on a data center. By the two efficiency measures that matter (jobs per acre, assessed property value per acre), they are a bad bet for this city.
What I will push for on council
- Oppose data-centre proposals at the scale and configuration currently on the table, including Spruce Lake as currently proposed.
- Push for zoning amendments that make this category of project harder to site in our industrial parks: pad-size limits, wider setbacks, no co-located on-site power plants.
- Take the Lorneville-residents’ alternative seriously: hosting a smaller industrial use at the old Spruce Lake Landfill site with cleanup as the community benefit.
- Pursue diversified, green, locally job-dense industry: advanced manufacturing, clean-tech, electric micromobility, port and rail.
- Procurement that keeps money in town: prefer co-ops and locally-owned firms when the math works.
- Engage the Mi’gmaq Rights Impact Assessment process honestly and respect its findings.