PV Saskatchewan Bureau
Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party truly are lap dogs for the extraction and resource industry. Throughout the party’s time in government, the resource industry has been given free reign over the province to do as they please, so long as private investment increases.
It is no surprise, then, that when Bell Canada and the tech industry came knocking, Moe and Co. couldn’t resist salivating like Pavlov’s dogs over the opportunity to privatize another chunk of the province.
Bell is taking the lead on the AI data centre in the Rural Municipality (RM) of Sherwood. But the lobbying arms of the tech industry is the Canadian Coalition for Digital Infrastructure (CCDI) and the Western Canada Data Centre Alliance (WCDCA), both composed of Amazon Web Services, Beacon Ai, Cologix, Ellis Don, Equinix and others.
It is well known that the Saskatchewan Party is a den of corruption but for the most part, this corruption has been silently infecting the province from back rooms and country clubs. This silence was boisterously interrupted in Sherwood when the party openly and loudly flaunted their corruption on behalf of the tech industry, for everyone to see.
In March, four out of the RM’s seven municipal councillors resigned over alleged ethical concerns, which seem to centre on the proposed land development agreement between the RM and Bell Canada and the construction of an AI data centre. In response to the resignations, the Minister of Government Relations and former RCMP member Eric Schmalz appointed four new members to council, all of them government and resource industry cronies.
Despite calls to hold off on hearing the land development agreement until a new council is elected in November, the agreement was rushed through on April 20 and accepted by the RM council composed of only three elected officials.
The proposed deal includes 16 conditions for the data centre, like drainage evaluations and sound pollution testing, as well as other “oversights.” These conditions sound reasonable, but the agreement contains no guarantees and no established processes to ensure corporate adherence to the stated conditions.
As the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives note, “The [data centre] industry is notorious for demanding local governments sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to prevent local officials from revealing key details about the proposals to construct these facilities. Essential information, such as estimated energy or water consumption, tax incentives and subsidies – even the very identity of the company[s] building the facility – are withheld from residents in the name of protecting proprietary business information. Even important information that is made public by the industry – such as job creation estimates – are often inflated or revised over the course of development.”
The lack of oversight and public consultation, political corruption and the slimy tactics used by Moe and his bandits to manipulate municipal policy in their favour, are all indications that this AI data centre is nothing but bad news for Saskatchewan.
Historically, Saskatchewan is a province which practices a semblance of public ownership and democratic control of resources, energy and services. A large part of the province still supports that practice and wants to see it continue.
But that can become reality until Scott Moe, the Saskatchewan Party and their policies are chucked in the waste bin. The opposition NDP is not the solution – that party has made very clear its willingness to follow the Saskatchewan Party in pursuing privatization of every aspect of the province.
Saskatchewan needs a real alternative – a people’s alternative rooted in far-reaching economic, social and political reforms that can unite the working class and its allies in the immediate struggle and, in the process, open the door to working-class power and socialism.
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