Alberta's Data-Centre Rush: Land, Water, Power, and the Oversight That Was Removed
What the public record shows about Alberta's $100-billion data-centre strategy — and what it doesn't.
Alberta is sitting on one of the largest concentrations of proposed AI data-centre investment in North America. If even a fraction of that investment proceeds, it will affect how the province uses water, generates power, and manages land that was publicly owned only a few years ago.
The Alberta government says this is about economic opportunity: attracting investment, creating jobs, and positioning the province for the growth of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
What follows is a documented examination of how that strategy is being implemented, what has changed to make it possible, and what the public record does — and does not — tell us about what Albertans are receiving in return.
The project at the centre of that story is O’Leary’s Wonder Valley.
The Project Pipeline
Alberta’s data-centre pipeline has grown from two proposals in January 2024 to, at least, 42 by February 2026, requesting a combined 21.1 gigawatts of power.
To put that in context: Alberta’s entire electricity grid — every home, farm, business, and industrial user in the province — peaks at roughly 12 gigawatts. The grid can safely absorb 1,200 megawatts of new large-scale demand. The projects are requesting seventeen times that, and the current number in the queue is likely to be higher than 42.
Even if only a small number of these projects proceed, the impact on Alberta’s water, power, and land could be significant. Canada’s National Observer’s analysis of the 42 projects found that three quarters of planned sites are in high water stress areas.
University of Alberta water management expert Evan Davies warned of the “cumulative effects” of concentrating so many facilities in the same already-stressed watersheds, describing a worst-case scenario in which parts of Alberta could no longer water crops or feed livestock in summer because data centres hold first-in-line water rights.
On power, AESO CEO Aaron Engen said in June 2025 that Alberta “cannot possibly connect all those proposed data centre projects in the short term.” Projects that cannot connect to the grid must build their own gas plants, meaning the full pipeline, if it went ahead, would require dozens of new natural gas facilities across the province.
Two projects show what an approved, funded, and on-track Alberta data centre looks like.
eStruxture is constructing a $750-million, 90-megawatt grid-connected facility in Balzac, north of Calgary, opening fall 2026.
Bitdeer Technologies Group broke ground June 2, 2026, on a $155-million facility near Fox Creek expected to be operational by Q2 2027.
Both went through standard regulatory channels before the current fast-track framework was introduced.
The project that dominates the public record — and the regulatory changes built around it — is Wonder Valley.
Wonder Valley: What Is Proposed
O’Leary Ventures, the Miami-based firm led by Kevin O’Leary, announced Wonder Valley in December 2024 in partnership with the Municipal District of Greenview. The proposal is for an AI data centre industrial park in the Greenview Industrial Gateway, approximately 40 kilometres south of Grande Prairie — described by proponents as the largest such facility on Earth.
Phase 1 is planned at approximately 4,940 acres with 1.4 gigawatts of power, at an estimated cost of $12 billion. Full buildout is projected at approximately 64 square kilometres — roughly 15,800 acres — with up to nine gigawatts of power generation across all phases and a total projected investment of $70 billion. When the project was announced, construction was expected to begin in 2026 with a first phase running by 2027. The O’Leary Digital spring 2026 newsletter now puts phased development starting in 2029, if approvals are granted.
As of June 2026, the documented status of Wonder Valley is:
Site clearing is underway — The Logic reported in December 2025 that burned slash piles and cleared areas were visible on the site, and project architect Gensler confirms timber is being harvested during site preparation
No AUC application has been filed for power generation approval
A conditional contract signed March 25, 2026, sets out the sale of former Crown land to a foreign-backed private company in three phases — the transfer has not been completed
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is in court over the government’s failure to consult before the project was announced
The Land
The land Wonder Valley would be built on is former Crown land — publicly owned land held by the provincial government — that has moved in stages to the Municipal District of Greenview and is now under contract to pass to private ownership.
The process began in late 2022, when the province sold approximately 809 hectares of Crown land to the Municipal District for $3 million to establish the Greenview Industrial Gateway, before O’Leary was involved.
In 2024, the province transferred additional surrounding Crown land to the municipality to build out the industrial park, according to Canada’s National Observer.
A land sale contract signed March 25, 2026, between O’Leary’s company and the Municipal District sets out a three-phase transfer of the land as Wonder Valley builds out. The publicly available version of that contract is heavily redacted.
One provision that can be read requires the municipality to secure provincial water licenses on O’Leary’s behalf before the sale can proceed. The deadline for securing those licenses is among the redacted sections.
Documents show the land is being sold to a numbered Alberta company that matches a numbered company O’Leary Digital has identified as its former name, registered to a private Calgary residence.
Alberta law prohibits foreign-controlled companies from buying large parcels of land without a Cabinet order or exemption. The exemption covers facilities of 80 acres or fewer. Phase 1 is approximately 4,940 acres. O’Leary Ventures is based in Miami.
Whether routing the purchase through a numbered Alberta company satisfies that law, and whether any exemption or Cabinet order applies, has not been confirmed in any public filing.
The Water
The Smoky River, northwest of Grande Prairie, is the proposed water source for Wonder Valley. The Municipal District of Greenview holds a 10-year license, granted April 2025, to withdraw up to 6 million cubic metres per year.
It also holds a preliminary certificate — a placeholder for future water rights, not yet a license to draw — for up to 24 million cubic metres per year, valid until 2034. For scale, 24 million cubic metres is enough water to supply approximately 460,000 people over their lifetimes.
O’Leary Digital’s spring 2026 newsletter revised the project’s estimated peak water demand downward to less than 6 million cubic metres per year at full operation. Greenview’s reeve confirmed early plans were based on the full 24-million-cubic-metre figure, and said new technology may mean the current license is enough for the project’s lifetime.
The river’s condition makes those numbers matter. Court documents filed by Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation record that the Little Smoky River was Alberta’s most overdrawn watershed in 2016, with the Smoky River second. The Municipal District declared an agricultural disaster in 2025 due to drought.
The province has said 24 million cubic metres is roughly two per cent of the Smoky watershed’s total annual yield, and that the preliminary certificate has not been approved.
The land sale contract requires the municipality to secure those water licenses on O’Leary’s behalf before the sale goes ahead. The province has published no cumulative water demand assessment for the Smoky system covering all current and proposed users.
What Changed to Allow It
Four government decisions changed how projects like Wonder Valley are approved.
Bill 8 — passed 2025. Created the “bring your own power” model.
Data centres can generate their own electricity off the public grid
Off-grid facilities pay zero in data centre levies; grid-connected ones pay up to 2%
Off-grid projects get priority grid access for any surplus power they export
Every off-grid gas plant proposal in the current pipeline depends on this law
Bill 12 — Royal Assent December 9, 2025. Introduced a levy on large data centres.
A levy of up to 2% applies to computing equipment at facilities using 75 megawatts or more, starting December 31, 2026
Profitable companies that stay in Alberta can deduct the full levy from their provincial income tax bill — making the net cost to them zero
Bill 30 — introduced April 2026, not yet in force. The fast-track law. It has completed all three readings in the Legislature but has not received Royal Assent as of June 2026. Once in force:
Cabinet can designate a project as “qualified,” after which every listed approval must be completed within 120 business days
To qualify, a project must involve at least $250 million in capital investment, align with provincial priorities, and be of strategic economic importance
Applications only need to show the status of any required environmental assessment — not that one has been completed. The Environmental Law Centre has noted this creates real uncertainty about what environmental work must be done before the clock starts
First Nations consultation is not part of the 120-day process, and the bill sets no standard for what adequate consultation looks like before the timer begins
The EIA exemption — April 2026. Alberta removed the provincial environmental assessment process from the Wonder Valley approval pathway. The province’s acting manager of approvals confirmed in writing that the project “is not a mandatory activity for the purposes of environmental assessment” and that further assessment “is not required,” classifying it as exempt because it uses “standard power and water systems.” Technical permit applications covering air, land, and water are still required before construction begins. A federal assessment remains possible; the federal government had not finalized its decision as of June 2026.
One approval gate that remains in place is the Alberta Utilities Commission. The AUC must approve every off-grid power generation facility before it can be built or operated.
In March 2026, the AUC rejected the power plant application for the Synapse data centre in Olds — a 1.4-gigawatt natural gas plant — citing significant problems, including 600 backup diesel generators not mentioned anywhere in the application. Wonder Valley has not yet filed its AUC application.
The Consultation Record
Under the Canadian Constitution, the government has a legal duty to meaningfully consult First Nations before making decisions that could affect their rights and traditional territories. That duty cannot be removed by legislation.
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, whose traditional territory includes the Wonder Valley site, sent an open letter to Premier Smith in January 2025 saying it had received no information from the provincial government before the project was announced.
Before the Nation says it was told anything, Crown land had already been transferred to the municipality in 2022, additional land transfers had already taken place in 2024, and Alberta had already publicly committed to attracting large-scale data-centre development. Chief Sheldon Sunshine described the approach as “the same type of stuff we’ve seen here with the province of Alberta — continuing to push these projects through with minimal discussion with us,” and called it “an absolute failure” for his people and for Albertans.
The Nation has challenged the project through every available channel. An appeal of the water licence to the Environmental Appeals Board was dismissed April 17, 2026, on the grounds that the Nation had not shown it would be directly and adversely affected. As of June 2026, Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is in court arguing the Crown failed its duty to consult. The Nation has also raised the foreign ownership question directly with the federal government.
Municipalities have had no formal role in the provincial approval process. The land sale contract requires the Municipal District to pursue water licensing on O’Leary’s behalf. Surrounding municipalities — those downstream on the Smoky River or in the path of construction workforce pressures — have no documented role in the process.
The one public event held to date was an open house at the Grovedale Community Hall on June 4, 2026. Attendees found six information booths and no open-question session. One resident described the information as “a lot of soft language.” Another said the event was “for their benefit, not the community’s.”
Once Bill 30 is in force, all remaining provincial approvals for a designated project must be completed within 120 business days. The bill does not require consultation to be finished before that clock starts.
What Alberta Is Getting in Return
That leaves a simple question: what is Alberta getting in return? Based on the public record:
Permanent jobs (Fox Creek): 30
Permanent jobs (Wonder Valley): Hundreds projected at full buildout, alongside temporary construction jobs
Levy revenue: None, if Wonder Valley operates off-grid as planned
Published provincial revenue projection: None
Published municipal revenue commitment: None
Published infrastructure commitments: None
A Greenview source told The Energy Mix they had no knowledge of “tax breaks or targeted financial incentives tied to the proposed land sale agreement.” The government has said the strategy aims to attract $100 billion in private investment by 2030.
What Albertans receive in return — in taxes, jobs, infrastructure, or other concrete benefits — has not been set out in any public document available at the time of this publication.
Factsmtr Analysis
Before Wonder Valley has received final approval, public land has been transferred, water rights have been pursued on the investor’s behalf, environmental review requirements have been reduced, and consultation with the First Nation whose territory the project occupies remains before the courts.
Each of these decisions has a stated purpose. Faster approvals attract investment. Off-grid power reduces pressure on the public grid. Streamlined reviews reduce costs and delays. The question is not why these changes were made. The question is what they look like when combined.
What the record shows is what they look like together. Former Crown land moves from public to private foreign-backed ownership through a contract that is partly redacted. A rural municipality is required by contract to secure water rights from a drought-stressed river on behalf of a $70-billion investor.
The provincial environmental assessment process is removed from the approval pathway for a campus projected at up to nine gigawatts of power generation. The First Nation on whose territory the project sits received no information before the announcement and has been turned away at every formal review stage except the courts. The fast-track law does not require consultation to be completed before the approval clock starts.
The AUC is the one body in this process whose independence the legislative changes have not directly touched. Its March 2026 rejection of the Synapse power plant — on the evidence in the application, not on policy grounds — is the most significant accountability moment in this file so far. Wonder Valley’s power application has not yet reached it.
The water certificate for 24 million cubic metres runs until 2034. The gas plants being considered will run for thirty to forty years. Former Crown land that moves to private ownership does not come back. These decisions will play out under water, climate, and energy conditions that will not look the way they do today.
What the public record cannot tell us is whether Albertans know the full terms of what is being agreed to on their behalf. The land contract is redacted. The water deadline is redacted. The foreign ownership structure runs through a numbered company. The consultation record is before the courts.
When the decisions are final, Albertans will inherit the consequences — but not the details of how they were made.
What Albertans are losing: Crown land, water rights, and environmental oversight — permanently. What they are gaining: hundreds of jobs, no levy revenue, and no published commitments on taxes, municipal revenue, or infrastructure.
If you found this analysis useful, share it with someone who should read it. If you think the documented record shows something different, the comments are open.
If this post raised questions about how to verify claims, contact decision-makers, or take civic action on issues like this one, check out the Factsmtr Civic Learning Series. New courses added each month. Available to paid subscribers.
Facts matter the Alberta Power Grid has a generation capacity of 23 Gig. Now, today
http://ets.aeso.ca/ets_web/ip/Market/Reports/CSDReportServlet
But your point is valid. In order to meet the -planned demand, we would have to double our power.
It's a way for the Smith Government to increase local demand for NG.