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64% of Canadians want their province to limit the development of large data centres. That comes from a new Angus Reid survey of 4,417 people, reported by Jennifer Kervin.

Support for limits hits 70% or more in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada. Water use is the top concern among those who want limits, named by 51%, and 38% worry data centres will push up electricity bills for households and businesses.

Despite that, construction continues. Bell has steel in the ground for a 300-megawatt data centre near Regina, and has signed a non-binding memorandum for another 900 megawatts, which would take that project to a potential 1.2 gigawatts and more than $50 billion. Meta has started a $13-billion campus north of Edmonton. 

Ottawa says it’s looking at up to six gigawatts more across the country, and published five development principles in September that 23 companies signed, including Amazon Web Services, Bell and Meta.

For more on where opposition is strongest and what the people who want more data centres say:

→ Read: Canadians aren’t sold on the data centre boom

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A 2020 study of 629 commercial threat intelligence reports found that only 82 (13%) discussed threats to civil society and even fewer, 22 (3.5%), made it the main subject.

Ron Deibert shared these numbers at SecTor in Toronto last week. He runs the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, and his team tracks spyware used against journalists, activists and protest movements.

“They’re actually giving what I would argue is a very distorted picture of the threat environment,” said Deibert.

The groups left out of those reports are getting hit at scale. Cloudflare protects them for free through Project Galileo and found they face website exploit attempts at more than seven times the rate of its other customers. 

For more, including the zero-click Pegasus infection the Citizen Lab found on a Serbian student protester’s phone:

→ Read: The threat intelligence industry has a blind spot

On Oct. 19, Albertans will be asked whether the province should hold a referendum on separating from Canada. It’s one of 10 questions on the ballot, and it hung over Calgary Economic Development’s 2027 Economic Outlook last week, covered by Chris Hogg.

Canadian Chamber of Commerce CEO Candace Laing said trading partners are already delaying decisions because of it, before anyone has voted. Business confidence has been low for eight straight quarters, she said, and the money companies do spend is going to replace what they already own.

ATB chief economist Mark Parsons said inflation is too high for the Bank of Canada to cut rates, so anyone holding a project until borrowing gets cheaper should stop waiting. ATB still has Alberta growing 2.3% next year against 1.5% nationally.

Hogg explores what that means for technology leaders pitching AI in 2027, including Brad Parry’s line about bringing a data knife to an emotional gunfight:

→ Read: What Calgary’s outlook means for tech leaders pitching AI

Some light reading for when the data centre hearing runs long

What employers want from the next generation of cyber talent 93% of the employers consulted by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst said human skills matter more now, with communication named most often. One recruiter now asks candidates how they keep learning.

French supermarket chains say cyberattack forced refrigerator shutdown A cyberattack shut down refrigeration at 150 to 200 Intermarché stores and close to 100 Coopérative U outlets, and the stores affected have to throw out their fresh and frozen stock. The fridge in your uncle’s garage isn’t smart or connected, but it's been running since 1996.

Canada’s AI adoption is accelerating, but accountability is struggling to keep pace Statistics Canada says 12.2% of Canadian businesses used AI to make goods or deliver services in 2025, double the 6.1% a year earlier. Getting past the pilot is the hard part. PwC Canada found 94% of Canadian CEOs use AI in some form, and only 29% have it running across the business, against 43% globally.

The infrastructure behind Canada’s push to orbit We covered Canada Rocket Company’s engine test site when it was announced. CEO Hugh Kolias has walked Jennifer Kervin through the plan behind it: skip the small rocket, use engineering that already works, reach orbit in six and a half years. “Our innovation is being uninnovative,” he says. Canada is the only G7 country without domestic orbital launch capability.

Anthropic bans ‘cruel’ behaviour against its Claude AI The company’s usage policy now bars sustained abuse of its models, enforced mostly by letting Claude end the conversation. Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman says machines don’t suffer. Pope Leo XIV used a sermon at St. Peter’s to note that algorithms compile data without recalling lived experience. Good news for everyone who has never once called a chatbot an idiot at 11 p.m. for losing an hour of work.

Canadians want economic growth and more control over the infrastructure they depend on. There's a case for building that capacity here, and for the investment that comes with it. But wanting Canada to build more doesn't necessarily mean giving every project a free pass.

64% want limits on large data centres. That doesn't mean 64% want them banned, and it doesn't mean the projects shouldn't go ahead.

Billions in investment is an impressive number. It's not an answer to a question about someone's water or electricity bill.

— David

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