City can’t regulate data centre as Kamloops council approves proposed neighbourhood

Kamloops city councillors approved a newly proposed subdivision near Kenna Cartwright park on Tuesday as numerous people spoke out in opposition to the data centre that may be built there.

Amid the voices speaking against it and the developers’ defence of the project, councillors split their time discussing why the couldn’t vote solely on the inclusion of a data centre and why a data centre is a benefit to the city.

“Sovereignty is a huge issue. I do not want somebody in a foreign country shutting off information to my local government, to my banking information, to what I listen to on the radio. When we hear the government saying they want data centres and AI stations to be sovereign, and controlled by our government, I think that’s huge,” Coun. Bill Sarai said before council voted unanimously in favour of the subdivision.

That was during a June 9 public hearing in which council unanimously supported zoning amendments to allow the Kenna Village subdivision to go ahead, just west of the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre.

Council had initially voted it down earlier this year. The developer tweaked the plans and returned to council, still planning to build an AI data centre in its first phase, in partnership with Bell.

The public hearing went on for hours with Coun. Mike O’Reilly absent due to a conflict of interest and Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson missing the meeting for personal reasons. Most of the speakers in opposition were concerned about the environmental impacts of another data centre.

Councillors told them there was no way for the city to regulate that aspect of the project. If it weren’t part of a zoning change, it wouldn’t have even gone to council, Coun. Stephen Karpuk said.

“With all the other options in the city, they could go anywhere and we wouldn’t even have a say,” he said.

There are already multiple other data centre builds in progress in Kamloops, which haven’t been approved.

Some councillors noted that there is clearly a demand, however, for a process to regulate them as some speakers noted that it was their only opportunity to do so. While council did vote earlier that same day to explore ways for the city to regulate data centres, it might be too late to adjust course on this project.

Developer Dan Rink spoke at the public hearing, touting the subdivision’s economic benefit and the walkable design between residential and industrial properties.

“At the end of the day, I think this project is a choice of what kind of economy Kamloops wants to build. One that’s progressive, one that’s future-looking, one that has the jobs of the future. Between industrial use and integration to residential, Kamloops needs jobs and it needs homes,” he said. “This is a project that does both.”

Another concern around the council table last time was surrounding $100 million in infrastructure improvements that’ll be sped up if the project is approved, which would be funded largely through developer fees. This time, city staff told council that the work was already happening and paid for, so the developer fees would reimburse those dwindling reserves.

That utility and infrastructure work was already in the works, in part, because of the arena multiplex project, and Coun. Kelly Hall said that works well for the city.

“I can feel confident supporting this project knowing that BC Hydro upgrades of $20 million are going to come to this project, the alignment and synergies that go along with our Build Kamloops initiative are very significant,” Coun. Kelly Hall said. “Canadian sovereignty of our information, the research that’s going to be coming out of this sector are all very important to Canadians and Kamloopsians.”