Ontario unveils new data center investment framework

Ontario has launched a new framework for data center development, with Premier Doug Ford saying the province wants to attract investment while keeping Canadian data inside the country and shielding households from higher electricity costs.

Announced at a meeting in Guelph, Ontario, the Data Center Playbook sets out how the province plans to evaluate data center proposals and what it expects from operators seeking to build in Ontario. The government said the framework is intended to ensure Canadian data remains in Canada and deliver "significant and meaningful benefits to local communities."

The playbook introduces "priority assessment pillars" to guide how Ontario will weigh economic development and strategic considerations tied to data centers. According to the framework, the first pillar is aimed at advancing economic development in Ontario, the second focuses on protecting data security and digital sovereignty, and the third centers on investing in communities and earning public confidence.

The government said the playbook is an "early initiative" that will help enable Ontario’s AI strategy, which it said could bring "$122 billion in economic growth by 2035 and creating more than 17,000 new jobs every year."

Under the framework, Ontario said it will provide only non-financial support to attract data center investment. The announcement pointed to the province’s clean and reliable electricity system, ample land, cool climate, and skilled workforce as advantages.

The playbook also says data centers would be responsible for paying for their impact on the electricity system so residents’ bills do not rise. That includes measures designed to encourage facilities to build their own power generation, as well as the creation of a new rate class for large new data centers, targeting sites with more than 1MW of capacity.

While the guidelines are not currently mandatory, the framework references the Protect Ontario by Securing Affordable Energy for Generations Act, which gives the government final authority over which large-load projects can connect to the provincial electricity grid.

Ontario said host communities could see benefits including apprenticeship opportunities for reskilling mid-career workers, new community amenities, critical infrastructure development, and indirect economic effects such as "increased demand for accommodations." The framework says those outcomes would come from data centers investing "significantly" in the communities where they locate, supporting infrastructure development, job creation, future economic growth, and training opportunities.

"Ontario has a choice: we can build the economy of the future and ensure Canadians’ data remains in Canada, or we can get left behind and risk Canadians’ data being sent to the US and elsewhere", said Premier Doug Ford. "Through our new Data Center Playbook, our government is choosing to build the economy of the future to generate billions in economic growth and create thousands of new jobs, while ensuring new data centers play by the right rules and pay the full cost of electricity. Any data center investment will need to invest significantly in local communities and pay more for electricity so no energy costs are passed on to hardworking families."

The government is seeking public input on the playbook through the Environmental Registry of Ontario and the Ontario Regulatory Registry during a 30-day public comment period that began August 13.

Read the source