‘Critical infrastructure’: Bell Canada makes record investment with AI data centre build

Bell Canada CEO Mirko Bibic and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe officially announced an AI data centre for the RM of Sherwood on Monday in Regina.

Bell Canada is bringing the future of AI to Saskatchewan, it announced Monday in Regina.

President and CEO Mirko Bibic, along with the Government of Saskatchewan, said the company is taking a step toward Canada’s sovereign AI future as they detailed the 300 MW data centre being developed in the RM of Sherwood, Sask.

“The data centres and the compute hardware that power AI are becoming critical infrastructure,” Bibic said during the announcement Monday. “Much like the railways and telephone wires that first connected this great country.”

The facility is part of the telecom’s bid to become Canada’s leading provider of “sovereign” AI compute.

According to Bell, the build is the largest purpose-built data centre in Canada and will bring $12 billion in investment to the province – one of the largest ever single investments in Saskatchewan ever.

“Right here in Regina, on globally leading AI technology,” Bibic said. “As sovereign demand scales, we will also be putting those sovereign workloads right here in Regina.”

“We have here a province that is willing to make that compute the power available to generate that compute capacity at scale,” he added.

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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe called the announcement “great news for the provincial economy.”

“If you’re a mining company, you’re part of the tech sector and today our mining companies are using AI technology to ensure that they are the most efficient mining companies in the nation,” he said. “The same holds true for agriculture, oil production and all the other industries operating in Saskatchewan, as well as manufacturing in other areas of Canada.”

George Gordon partnership

Bell is building the facility in partnership with George Gordon First Nation.

“We’ll explore opportunities for Indigenous procurement, participation and workforce development,” Bibic explained.

Chief Shawn Longman says the nation’s development company has long had an interest in the AI space.

“Since I’ve been the chief, I’ve been looking at AI, thinking about AI and thinking how can we get involved in AI,” Longman said. “I believe it’s going to be key to education and it’s going to be key to streamline a lot of processes.”

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George Gordon Developments owns land near where the data centre’s site will be.

CEO Don Ross says the company continues to diversify and may be looking to expand in collaboration with Bell.

“We have 577 acres of land that we want to develop and we can develop that land in partnership with Bell, as neighbors, and with the city of Regina as neighbors,” he added. “We’re looking at long term employment and training opportunities for our citizens in Regina and surrounding areas.”

The First Nation says it has signed memorandums of understanding with Bell, but wouldn’t disclose full details about what it entailed.

“My target is 100 per cent of the opportunity and I’ll take advantage of 100 per cent,” Ross said. “I’m not into quotas, I don’t want quotas for our people. I think every opportunity we should have a chance to compete for all $12 billion of that opportunity.”

Bell addresses concerns

The centre has been the source of recent controversy.

Multiple petitions have been penned in attempt to halt the data centre’s construction, citing power capacity issues, environmental concerns, ecological impacts and the ethics of AI.

Bibic addressed the public’s concerns Monday.

“We are not drawing on municipal water sources,” he claimed. “And in terms of waste heat, we’d be looking to plug into a district energy system. It’s part of a parcel of being very mindful of working with government, enterprise, community leaders and with environmental concerns top of mind.”

“That’s how we’re going to keep scaling Bell AI Fabric, being very mindful of the stakeholders,” Bibic added.

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Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski said he is relieved to hear municipal services will not be impacted.

“One main concern I’ve heard about was the water and to hear very clearly there is not a need for a municipal water supply is obviously comforting,” he told reporters after the announcement. “But also the opportunity, the jobs it creates and the educational opportunities; there’s a lot of tangential benefits for Regina.”

Construction is scheduled to start in the spring, coming online in stages, beginning in the first half of 2027.

The telecom, which is the parent company of CTV News, expects construction of the massive data centre to support over 800 jobs in trades and engineering, and a minimum of 80 full time jobs once it’s operating.

Bell says its sovereign AI compute will help government agencies, researchers and enterprises in access “top-tier AI power” while guaranteeing their data remains in Canada.

According to the release, Bell has partnered with SaskTel to connect the new data centre to its national fibre backbone. The move will also open locally-produced AI-powered products to SaskTel customers.

“It’s a transformational technology like we haven’t seen since the advent of the internet,” Bibic told reporters. “You either lean into AI as a community, as a country, as a province and across the board or you get left behind.”

“AI is the next wave of technology we are going to lean into to keep connecting Canadians across the country,” he added.