Petition launched by Wheatland County residents in opposition of local data centre proposal

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wheatland County residents are calling on their council members not to move forward with paving the way for data centre development in the local region. 

Emily Barnett, a county resident who is within the proposed impact zone, launched a petition July 14, to indicate substantial dissent from locals towards the proposed Goldfinch data campus. 

“I really got the feeling that several council members feel like this is just an issue for Carseland residents, the residents of Division 3, and I don’t think that’s accurate,” she said. “There is not much more that I can do to affect change. The one thing I can still do between now and Aug. 11, is demonstrate how this is not just an issue that people who live next to it have. This is a concern with ratepayers across the county.”

Within five days of launching the petition, nearly 500 county residents had signed, aiming to make their voices heard. 

As the discussion currently stands, second reading has been passed by county council on two bylaws which propose to alter land use governance within the Goldfinch Industrial Area Structure Plan in order to facilitate the development of a hyperscale data centre. 

The first, Bylaw 2025-32, would make amendments, revise figures and maps, and append the data centre area concept plan within the ASP. This effectively being to provide the language within the bylaw, permitting the data centre as an appropriate land use, classifying it as medium industrial.

The second, Bylaw 2025-34, would redesignate the subject lands from Agriculture General to Industrial General, which would then provide the context for the appropriate use case.

Coun. Shannon Laprise, during the county’s July 7 meeting to discuss the bylaws, said she did not believe the record number of people who came out to be at the meeting in person – who overflowed from council chambers and required an entire additional room to accommodate, necessarily meant the majority of county residents opposed the data centre. 

“We just don’t hear from people who are in support of it. That is typical of any project,” she said.

During the votes, Coun. Donna Biggar and Coun. Rick Laursen represented the sole opposition to the bylaws.

Diode Ventures, being the applicant behind the facility, is proposing the hyperscale data centre campus to occupy 575 acres of the Goldfinch Industrial ASP, paired with a new natural gas power plant in order to supply sufficient electricity for its function. 

Should development be allowed to proceed to completion, the Goldfinch Technology Park data centre would boast a minimum load of 250 Megawatts, with capacity of up to 950 Megawatts.

According to Enmax, the all-time summer record system load for the entire city of Calgary was posted at 1,824 Megawatts. 

“My experience in talking to people from the county, they did not even know that this was happening. They were gob smacked that we are this far along in the process of getting a data centre,” said Barnett. “It is time to not just have the county be in charge of letting Wheatland residents know about this, but we will let people know.”

The county, in compliance with the Municipal Government Act, fulfilled their required obligations of advertising the meeting on their website, as well as in the newspaper.

“They have done what is required of them to do, but that doesn’t mean that people read the Strathmore Times and that doesn’t mean people go to the Wheatland County website every week to see what is happening in bylaws,” added Barnett. “If you are not part of those two groups, then you don’t know what is happening with it.”

She added she felt it premature to be redesignating agricultural lands to industrial, particularly in this case being prior to lands being secured by Diode Ventures for the accompanying power plant. 

The petition continues to be live on Change.org and is searchable with the term “Wheatland County.”

Council will revisit the topic for potential third readings of the bylaws during the Aug. 11 meeting.