Houston government forced to debate AI data centre at legislative committee

HALIFAX –NDP Claudia Chender made the following statement about the PCs agreeing to a NRED committee meeting on data centres:

“Forcing the Houston government to answer questions about the proposed data centre in Point Tupper is a win for Nova Scotians. It’s the first opportunity Nova Scotians will have to hear directly from the departments and EverWind about the benefits – and costs – to their community.

People have been speaking out, flooding MLA inboxes with their concerns and now there is finally some progress forward.

Since this data centre was announced, New Democrats have been using every tool we have to force the Houston government to be transparent about the secretive deal they’ve made with a massive, American AI company. While this is a step in the right direction, the PC government must call the legislature back and take every opportunity to meaningfully address Nova Scotians’ concerns.

In a project of this size there are many things to consider: power rates for Nova Scotians, environmental consequences, potential economic benefit and possible liabilities for communities to navigate. At the end of the day, people just want to know what a data centre could mean for their community; what the Houston government has agreed to, what protections are being put in place in law to protect them and what considerations were made before letting a huge American AI company set up operations in our province. These are reasonable concerns that must be addressed by any responsible government. These are the questions we’re hearing from Nova Scotians,we’ll be bringing them to committee and continuing to push for a legislative solution in an emergency session.”

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