Wonder Valley: AI Plant Development Sparks Concern
Photo Credit: O’Leary Ventures
The Chairman of O’Leary Ventures, Canadian millionaire Kevin O’Leary, has proposed for the “world’s largest” AI data centre to be built in Northern Alberta, called Wonder Valley. O’Leary has described the project as a way to transform Alberta and Canada into hotspots for the AI industry. However, in December 2024, O’Leary Ventures announced their plan to construct the data centre without mention of consulting First Nations in the area, despite the proposed location of Wonder Valley being on the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation’s traditional land.
Wonder Valley is slated to cost over $70 billion to construct and maintain over its lifetime, and has a total capacity of 7.5 gigawatts of power. Its 58 proposed buildings will preserve and process digital information, before transferring power to hyperscalers, which are large-scale data centres that can initiate cloud computing and data solutions.
Wonder Valley’s construction will unfold over one-gigawatt phases, and phase 1 is expected to cost $2.8 billion CAD and create 1.4 GW of power. According to the CBC, O’Leary stated that the project would create jobs for thousands of citizens in northern Alberta, therefore boosting the economy of the area.
O'Leary picked the Municipal District of Greenview in Alberta to build Wonder Valley because it is near a city, Grande Prairie, and has enough physical space and resources to set up the required infrastructure. Tyler Olsen, the reeve of Greenview, supported O’Leary’s choice. Olsen also pointed out the benefits of Greenview, which has a major drilling program, a lot of natural gas, and cool temperatures — the latter of which result in less water being required to cool data centres, which generate large amounts of heat.
On the other hand, Chief Sheldon Sunshine of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation disapproves of Wonder Valley. He sent a letter to Danielle Smith expressing “grave concern” over this planned project. Chief Sunshine added that the province is required to follow responsibilities as part of Treaty 8, but that the proposal was a transgression of the treaty rights.
“Our people have been working and living in this territory for a millennia,” wrote Chief Sunshine according to CBC News. “So it's concerning when we have the government and Mr. O'Leary talking about big plans and there was no mention of First Nation consultation.”
Indigenous people in the area rely on routes along the Smoky River to create traps for fur hunting, use water from the Smoky River, “and to exercise [their] way of life, which has been systemically eroded by unmitigated cumulative effects from the provincial government's authorizations of industrial development in our territory,” wrote Chief Sunshine, according to CBC News.
However, he also added that the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation was “not opposed to business” and that they would approve if it was done in a “sustainable way” where their resources are not negatively impacted.
Jonathan Gauthier, the press secretary of Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish, wrote a statement to CBC News, saying that the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas will issue a Water Act licence to Wonder Valley if certain requirements are met. One of these requirements include properly discussing the development of Wonder Valley with the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation.
Consultation and approval by the Alberta Utilities Commission is also needed for large-scale electricity generation facilities preceding their construction or operation. According to CBC News, Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist at the University of Alberta, said that consultation with the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation was not required until later stages in the project development when the government grants a permit or provides money to the construction.
Leach added that, although it would have been ideal, O’Leary Ventures current lack of consultation with Indigenous groups “certainly couldn't be seen to have impacted any treaty rights that would trigger duty to consult.”