Alberta's technology minister was peppered with profanity and heckled by residents on Thursday at the province's second town hall on its plan to become a hub for artificial intelligence data centres — a plan now symbolized by Meta's C$13 billion project in Sturgeon County.
Nate Glubish, the technology minister in Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative government, faced the barrage of anger at the event in Redwater, north of Edmonton, alongside MLA Dale Nally. It was the second such meeting in a week, after an earlier town hall in Lacombe drew jeers and boos, according to The Globe and Mail. The Canadian Press reported the Redwater crowd heckled the minister repeatedly and hurled expletives throughout the night.
The Project Behind the Fury
The anger has a concrete anchor. Last month, Meta announced it will build a massive AI data centre in Sturgeon County — its first in Canada — representing a total investment of C$13 billion, roughly US$9.2 billion, as Reuters reported in July. The one-gigawatt facility is to be fed by a C$4.6 billion natural gas-fired power plant, and the company says the project is part of its rapid global buildout of computing capacity to support the AI boom.
For a provincial government chasing billions in data centre investment, the Meta deal was a headline win. For many of the people who will live next to it, the announcement landed differently — and the town halls have become the venue where that gap is playing out.
People lined up at the microphone in Redwater to demand specifics on safeguards, with speakers raising concerns that megaprojects will strain rural Alberta's water, land, and electricity. Some said trust in the provincial government on the file has already been lost.
'You Should Be Saying What We're Telling You to Say'
Sturgeon County resident Connie Shields told the meeting she does not trust the government to properly regulate projects like the one planned for her area.
"You are the people we elected. You should be saying what we're telling you to say," Shields said. "You shouldn't be making up your own rules, you shouldn't be dictating what goes where."
Another woman in the crowd noted the Smith government spent more than two years planning its data centre strategy and only recently notified locals. "If no one wants this, why are you pushing forward with this?" she asked, to applause. Event moderator Vitor Marciano stepped in with a caveat — "lots of people not applauding" — before the minister responded.
Glubish, speaking over angry interruptions, defended the siting of the project. "This was zoned for this for over 30 years, and now it is coming to fruition," he said, according to The Canadian Press.
Jobs Versus Water, Land, and Power
The economic case has become the government's chief counterweight to the hostility. Asked about skepticism over promised employment, Glubish said Meta's project represents indirect economic benefits well beyond direct construction and operations jobs — and that 300 positions are not nothing.
"If we have a choice between 300 jobs and zero jobs, I'm taking 300 jobs all day long," Glubish said.
That tradeoff did not land with much of the room. Speaker after speaker questioned whether local resources might be "sucked dry" by the megaproject, a concern that has followed Alberta's data centre push since the Meta announcement. The province has pointed to as much as C$200 billion in potential AI data centre investment interest in Alberta, a figure officials cited again this week as community consultations continue — an indication of just how much more development could be coming to rural counties if the government gets its way.
The minister also took heat over the government's use of the notwithstanding clause, a once-rarely-used provision that can override rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. One man in the crowd described the decision as "slimy" and questioned how Albertans could trust the government on anything else.
"I'm sorry to hear that you have such a jaded view of the government," Glubish responded, to boos.
A Global Story With a Local Address
The Redwater showdown is the Alberta chapter of a tension now playing out across North America and Europe: hyperscalers need vast amounts of land, power, and water for AI infrastructure, and they need them quickly, while the rural communities being asked to host that infrastructure are demanding a much slower, more careful process.
Alberta has moved aggressively to position itself as a destination — cheap land, available natural gas for power, and a government eager to sign deals. Meta's Sturgeon County campus, paired with its dedicated gas plant, is the largest commitment so far. Other players are circling: Calgary media reported this week that another major AI company is eyeing the province for potential data centre construction, and Anthropic has separately signaled interest in adding "gigawatts" of AI compute in Canada, according to The Logic.
But the town halls suggest the political pathway is narrowing rather than widening. The Globe and Mail noted the second meeting was scheduled precisely because the first one went so badly — and it went badly too. With more consultations expected, the Smith government faces the same calculation other jurisdictions do: the speed at which AI companies want to build, and the speed at which host communities are willing to let them, are not the same thing.
For now, the C$13 billion project remains on track, the jobs pledge stands at 300, and the next town hall has not yet been announced. Whether Alberta's data centre strategy survives contact with its own residents may depend on how those meetings go.
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