Carry the Kettle First Nation call on provincial and federal governments to pause AI Data Centre

In a statement released Monday, Carry the Kettle First Nation is calling on the Governments of Saskatchewan and Canada, as well as Bell Canada, to pause the development of the AI Data Centre “until a proper environmental assessment is complete and our Nation is consulted and accommodated in accordance with the Treaty.”

The Bell Canada AI Data Centre is a massive, 1.2 gigawatt artificial intelligence centre currently under construction just south of Regina, in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood. Carry the Kettle First Nation’s main reserve is located about 90 kilometres east of the AI data centre site.

In the statement issued by the First Nation, they state the provincial government is “ramming through Bell Canada’s massive Data Centre near Regina”, and “handpicking municipal councillors to achieve quorum without any notice or consultation to our Nation.”

As the First Nation said the approval of the centre without environmental assessments evades duties to First Nations, the band sent a registered letter to Premier Scott Moe and Bell Canada on May 13, requesting more information. They received no reply, according to the statement.

“This is beyond irresponsible. There is limited water in our area – our people raise cattle, so do our neighbours. We see drought conditions. We have an acquirer under our reserve to protect. We don’t know where the water is coming from and we don’t understand the impacts,” said Carry the Kettle First Nation Chief Cliff Thomson in a statement.

A 1.2 gigawatt AI data centre would consume an estimated 2.1 billion to 18.9 billion gallons of water annually, and global projections estimate water usage of AI data centres could reach 9.3 trillion litres by 2030, according to an Earth.org UN Report Summary.

“All we hear are media reports of governments effectively asking our people to ‘just trust us’. This is not enough. Our Nation will stand firm in protecting our land and our Treaty,” said Thomson.

According to the statement, there have been no environmental impact assessment done by any level of government, which the First Nation calls “dishonourable”.

The statement also reads that on September 3, the federal government exempted natural gas-fired power plants, required for the developed of the data centre, from environmental impact assessment. It also reads that on September 14, without notice, consent, or consultation, the federal and provincial governments quadrupled the size of the AI data centre of 1.2 gigawatts.

“No assessment of the impacts on our water, air, lands, wildlife, or our health. No demonstration of the public good that hyperscale Data Centres allegedly produce, or any real promise of digital ‘sovereignty’,” reads the statement.

The first phase of operations, which include two data halls out of six planned, are scheduled to be up and running by mid-2027.