Bell seeks 895 more acres for Sask. AI data centre

Bell Canada has entered conditional agreements to buy about 895 acres of farmland around its artificial intelligence data centre south of Regina, and the Rural Municipality of Sherwood has given first reading to the rezoning needed for the expansion, according to CTV News and MobileSyrup.

The purchases would lift the campus from 160 acres to about 1,055 acres, more than six times its current size, iPhone in Canada reported, citing CBC News and rezoning documents filed with the municipality. The documents propose up to nine more data centre buildings, with construction starting as early as 2027.

The filing is the first detailed look at the 1.2-gigawatt expansion Bell announced in September, which the company has put at an estimated $52 billion. Saskatchewan has called it the largest private capital investment in the province’s history.

Council took up the proposal at a special online meeting on Oct. 7. Reeve Ray Orb said disruptions at earlier council meetings led to the virtual format, and that Bell must consult First Nations about the project. Protest organizer Taran Ulrich said the online format was “entirely a way to just circumvent any sort of criticism,” according to iPhone in Canada.

Final approval still requires further steps, including a public hearing. No date has been set. Bell said the full expansion depends on customer commitments, permits and environmental assessments.

The power plan is a large part of the proposal. SaskPower would supply 300 megawatts, and Bell would generate the remaining 900 megawatts with natural gas, at a separate site farther from Regina whose location has not been disclosed. The province has said those power costs will not be passed on to Saskatchewan households.

The existing campus was approved in April despite local opposition. Two of its six approved data halls are expected to open in the first half of 2027. Property records list deputy reeve Kevin Chekay among the landowners, and Orb confirmed that Chekay recused himself from the vote and from earlier data centre discussions.

Two Saskatchewan First Nations have already pressed Bell over the project. Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation asked in an Oct. 2 letter for environmental and cultural studies for every phase, and Carry the Kettle First Nation asked for a pause until an environmental assessment and consultation take place, as reported earlier by Global News and MBC Radio. This report does not include a response from either nation to the land purchases.

For Canadian businesses and governments shopping for domestic AI computing, the project is the physical base of Bell AI Fabric, which the company markets as sovereign capacity with data kept in Canada. Whether it grows on the scale proposed now depends on the rezoning vote, the environmental reviews and whether Bell secures the customers it says the build requires.

The sellers and the purchase prices have not been made public, and the conditional agreements have not closed.

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Sources: CTV News Regina, MobileSyrup, iPhone in Canada.