Council divided on moratorium for new AI data centres amid power-grid strain

City council is split over whether Ottawa should pause approval of new large-scale AI data centres as electricity demand from the industry strains the municipal power grid.

Six councillors said they would support a moratorium on new facilities. Two opposed the idea outright. Eight responded without taking clear positions, and nine did not answer. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe declined to take a stand, saying future large infrastructure projects should be considered on a case-by-case basis within sound planning and consultation.

Hydro Ottawa CEO Bryce Conrad told council in June the utility was facing "extraordinary pressure" from large electricity users. The utility now has 34 large-load projects seeking grid connections that would collectively require 1,075 megawatts of power — about 86 per cent of Hydro Ottawa's entire average system load last year. Data centres accounted for about 60 per cent of that new demand.

"We are being asked to build and support in the next two to three years what has taken us more than the better part of 110 years to build," Conrad said. He also stressed that the demand represented economic growth for Ottawa, calling it a "good problem" the utility needed to find a way to support.

Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante said a temporary moratorium should have a clear deadline tied to provincial regulations or a city policy framework. "A moratorium should not be about saying 'no' to data centres," she said. "It should give us the time to establish clear rules so that, when we say 'yes,' we understand the impacts and know what we are asking residents and our infrastructure to absorb."

Kanata North Coun. Cathy Curry strongly disagreed, calling a moratorium "one of the most short-sighted economic decisions this city could make." Orléans East-Cumberland Coun. Matt Luloff also opposed a blanket moratorium, saying projects should be considered individually if infrastructure could support them and developers covered their share of costs.

Mayoral candidate and Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper said he would support a pause. "Ottawa should pause new large-scale data centres until we can show our power and water systems can carry them," he said. Neil Saravanamuttoo also backed a moratorium, saying the city needed better understanding of potential impacts. Mayoral candidate Alex Lawson opposed it, saying data centres could expand Ottawa's tax base if developers paid their own way and infrastructure could support them.

Ontario's provincial data centre framework, announced by Premier Doug Ford in Guelph on Thursday, August 13, conditions approval on two requirements: projects must cover the full cost of the electricity they consume, and they must use closed-loop cooling systems that recirculate water rather than drawing continuously from local supplies.

Craig McLellan, CEO of ThinkOn, which operates a data centre in Nepean, said Ottawa would need more computing infrastructure as AI and other digital services grew but acknowledged limits to available electricity. He welcomed a moratorium focused on education and transparency but cautioned against a broad pause without a clear end date, warning it could send investment elsewhere.