The AI data centre boom is coming to Canada and cooling the technology will require massive amounts of clean water. For The National, CBC’s Jonathan Montpetit dives into the consumption and uncovers a murky business with little oversight.

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Rise of AI

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is fueling a boom in data centre construction across Canada, with major tech companies investing heavily in new facilities. These centres, essential for powering AI technologies, require large amounts of water for cooling, raising environmental concerns among local communities and experts.

While companies like Microsoft claim that new technologies and Canada's cool climate will reduce water consumption, some proposed centres are planned for drier regions, intensifying worries about resource allocation. Critics argue that the industry's water use could strain municipal supplies, and there is currently little regulatory oversight or transparency regarding actual consumption. Promises by tech giants to achieve net zero water use by 2030 are met with skepticism, as experts question the feasibility of such goals amid ongoing expansion.

The AI data centre boom is coming to Canada — and it’s thirsty

The AI industry is growing fast, and it's spending staggering sums building data centers. The huge banks of computers needed to power this new technology. But this AI infrastructure also comes with an environmental cost. When we use an AI chatbot to answer life's essential questions, data centers consume water, both in electricity and more directly in their cooling systems. A study done in 2023 estimated that every dozen or so prompts in chat GPT used about 500 milliliters of water, or about one of these water bottles. And if that doesn't seem like a lot, keep in mind that nearly 800 million people use chat GPT every week. The tech industry is rushing to build data centers powerful enough to support the growing demand for AI products. It's projected to spend more than $400 billion this year alone on AI infrastructure around the world. This is YTO40, one of several new hyperscale data centers that Microsoft is currently building in Canada. Inside will be thousands of servers working around the clock, generating an intense amount of heat. And cooling these data centers is becoming a major issue for the tech industry. Most big data centers need some measure of potable water to cool their server rooms. In warmer climates, data centers can easily chug through a swimming pool's worth of water every day, most of which evaporates. And where water is scarce, places like Spain, Uruguay, and parts of the US, citizens are rising up against these projects. Just last month, Google shelved a data center project in Indianapolis. I'd like to announce our intention to withdraw this proposal. After growing community backlash. Traditional data centers and traditional industrial cooling has really used a lot of water. It's been a very water-intensive process. Alistair Spears is in charge of Microsoft's cloud infrastructure. He says improvements in technology mean the new facilities in Canada will use much less water than before. So one of the great things about building in Canada and in colder climates is that we can just use free air cooling from outside air temperatures. The data centers Microsoft is building in and around Toronto have been cleared by city officials to use around one billion litres of water per year. But Microsoft says it will only use a fraction of that amount because huge vents will allow it to cool the servers using outside air. With its cool climate and cheap electricity, Canada is poised to become a popular spot in the data center boom. There are already more than 300 data centers in Canada, most of them near Toronto and Montreal. But now the industry is looking to some of the driest parts of the country. I understand what will become the world's largest AI data center in Canada, northwest Alberta. Tell us about that. This is going to be the lowest cost data center in the world. And even serial investors like Kevin O'Leary want in on the action. In Nanaimo, a proposed data center has some residents worried about foreign tech using up local resources. All those in favor of the motion and those opposed, pouncers, pouncers, Gesselbach, sir. But Mayor Leonard Krog sees an opportunity. Every community is looking to be part of what we will call the future in terms of the economy, what kinds of jobs and the kind of jobs that would be attracted to this kind of facility are the jobs of the future to some extent. Catherine Barnwell, a retired English professor, is part of a group of citizens opposed to the project. She says a few jobs aren't worth the risk to the environment. Life on this planet is sustained by water. It is not sustained by data. We don't need data the way we need water. It's essential. And we in Canada have been pretty blithe about our natural resources. Barnwell is staking her longtime friendship with the mayor on changing his mind. I really, really enjoin you to think about what this could mean for your political career and your legacy. I'm not going to agree with all of Catherine's assertions, I'm afraid. In both Europe and the U.S., officials are trying to regulate how much water data centers can use. But so far, there is little industry oversight here in Canada. If you approve data centers that are relying on your treated city water, that's less water in your water budget and your water accounting for your residential growth. David Mayer is a professor of municipal water engineering at the University of Toronto. Canadians that live in dry areas should care a lot about AI water usage. That water is needed for agriculture, it's needed for cities. Canadians that live near large freshwater bodies should care about the water usage of AI, both because it takes a lot of energy and carbon to treat and move our water around, and because we have pipes that are already underground that were built on plans that hadn't thought of AI. Some of our pipes are 100 years old. We hadn't thought of lots of things when they went underground. They were not expecting the thirst of an AI data center. But many data centers don't disclose their water consumption figures, and cities don't always keep track. This Amazon data center in the Montreal suburb of Varennes has been using municipal drinking water since 2018. But the building doesn't have a water meter, so no one in the city actually knows just how much water is being used. And Amazon wouldn't answer our questions about its water use here. The way I explain it is, unlike any other industry, water is like blood to the data center industry. Nathan Wanguzi used to work on water sustainability issues for Amazon, which operates dozens of data centers around the world. What I found, and I think this is an industry-wide problem, but then obviously because Amazon is the biggest company, that there's a tendency to deny or cover that that water consumption exists. Big tech companies, including Microsoft and Amazon, have promised to have net zero water consumption by 2030. But Wanguzi is skeptical that the tech industry can both keep building massive AI data centers while also reducing their water intake. I don't really believe that that's possible. I've looked at these numbers obviously very closely. I've developed programs to monitor. And I can tell you categorically, it is not possible for any of the big tech companies today to meet water positive by 2030 or even 2050 unless they go bankrupt. Why should Canadians care about how much water these data centers are consuming? They should care about it because that is the water that they should be consuming. The AI data center boom is coming to Canada. Governments want it. Industry wants it. And the question now is whether the country has enough resources to quench our thirst for this new technology.

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The AI data centre boom is coming to Canada — and it’s thirsty

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