Nanaimo’s Data Centre Is Not What You Think
It is not the massive AI factory being built in Alberta—and the difference matters
Mention the words “data centre” and many people now picture an enormous AI complex consuming as much electricity as a city, using vast quantities of water and covering hundreds of acres.
Those facilities are real. Some are being built in Canada. But that is not what is presently proposed for East Wellington Road in Nanaimo.
The Nanaimo project deserves proper scrutiny. The public should know its power demand, water use, employment and economic benefit. But it should be judged according to what it actually is—not confused with the massive AI campuses making national headlines.
Three Data Centres—Three Very Different Projects
| Key Component | Nanaimo | Saskatchewan | Alberta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Maplecolo proposal | Bell Canada | Meta |
| Primary purpose | Secure data storage and colocation | Artificial intelligence | Artificial intelligence |
| Site area | About 5.75 acres | About 161 acres | About 1,750 acres |
| Power demand | Not publicly disclosed | Up to 300 MW | Initially 1,000 MW |
| Investment | Not disclosed | About $1.7 billion | About $13 billion |
| Permanent jobs | Not disclosed | At least 80 | About 300 |
| Status | Development permit issued | Under construction | Major development underway |
Meta’s proposed Alberta campus would occupy a site more than 300 times larger than the Nanaimo property.
Its initial electrical requirement would be one gigawatt—1,000 megawatts—with the possibility of eventually reaching 1,800 MW. That is the output of a major generating station and enough electricity to serve hundreds of thousands of homes.
Bell’s Saskatchewan project, under construction outside Regina, will require up to 300 MW and cost approximately $1.7 billion.
Those are genuine, purpose-built AI factories.
What Is Proposed for Nanaimo?
The Nanaimo development is planned for 2090 East Wellington Road on a property of approximately 5.75 acres.
Its development permit allows a two-storey building of up to 18,000 square metres—about 194,000 square feet—to be constructed in as many as ten modular phases.
Although that is a substantial industrial building, the City has said the proposed use is data storage rather than artificial intelligence.
The proponent, Maplecolo, describes its business as secure colocation and “quantum-safe” communications. Colocation generally means providing secure space, power and network connections for customers’ computer servers.
That is not the same as filling an enormous campus with tens of thousands of advanced processors used to train artificial-intelligence models.
Could its use change over time as equipment is replaced? Possibly. That is why clear operating limits and continuing disclosure matter. But there is presently no evidence that Nanaimo is approving anything comparable to the Alberta or Saskatchewan AI campuses.
What About Nanaimo’s Water?
The applicant estimates that the completed facility would use between 55,000 and 69,000 litres of municipal water per day for cooling and domestic purposes.
That sounds enormous when presented without context. At the upper figure, it amounts to approximately 25 million litres annually.
The City provides the following comparisons:
- A Nanaimo shopping mall uses approximately 100,000 litres per day.
- A local food processor uses about 83,000 litres per day.
- The BC Ferries terminal uses around 56,000 litres per day.
- A car wash uses approximately 44,000 litres per day.
- The City’s two water-fill stations together use about 273,000 litres per day.
The data centre’s projected use would represent approximately 0.19% of Nanaimo’s total daily water consumption and about 1% of commercial and industrial consumption.
That does not mean the water is irrelevant. Its greatest demand could occur during warmer weather, when water conservation is most important. The centre should be metered, monitored and required to remain within its registered water covenant.
But the disclosed numbers do not describe a water-consuming AI megacampus.
The Largest Unanswered Question Is Electricity
Strangely, the public knows the proposed building’s size and anticipated water consumption—but not its electrical demand.
Without the megawatt figure, an honest assessment of the centre’s true industrial scale is impossible.
We know Bell’s Saskatchewan facility could require 300 MW. We know Meta’s initial Alberta facility is planned for 1,000 MW.
How many megawatts will the Nanaimo centre require during each of its ten phases? What is its expected annual electricity consumption? Has BC Hydro guaranteed the necessary capacity? Will electrical or transmission upgrades be required—and who will pay for them?
Those questions should have been answered before the project reached this stage.
In July 2026, Nanaimo Council directed staff to require future data-centre rezoning applications to provide detailed information about water use, energy consumption and conservation plans.
That was a sensible decision. It also reveals that the information required when the East Wellington property was rezoned was inadequate.
Concern Should Be Proportional to the Project
There are legitimate questions about Nanaimo’s proposed centre:
- How much electricity will it consume?
- How many permanent jobs will it create?
- What will its completed assessed value and property taxes be?
- Who are its expected customers?
- Will any public infrastructure upgrades be required?
- Could its equipment eventually be converted to intensive AI computing?
- What penalties apply if it exceeds its water covenant?
Those questions should be answered directly.
But comparing Nanaimo’s proposed secure-data facility with a one-gigawatt AI campus is like comparing a local warehouse with an international container port. Both store something, but their scale, function and impact are fundamentally different.
The concern surrounding massive AI data centres should not automatically be transferred to every building called a data centre.
The Fair Conclusion
Nanaimo is not getting another Meta or Bell AI factory.
It is getting approval for a phased commercial data-storage and colocation facility on a 5.75-acre property. Its projected water use is measurable and relatively modest within the City’s overall system.
The project is not beyond question. In fact, the failure to disclose its anticipated electrical consumption, permanent employment and local economic return remains a serious information gap.
Ask the hard questions—but ask them about the project actually being proposed.
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