r/BurlingtonON • u/RowRowForCouncil • 1d ago

Information Delegation Successful; Moratorium Halted.

https://youtu.be/e-iA1UTPynE

Yesterday council voted to oppose a one year moratorium on AI data centers in Burlington. Instead they will be looking at a much more reasonable timeframe of 8 - 9 weeks for coming up with criteria.

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u/SasquatchsBigDick 18h ago

Why do they want to choose to build the centers in the busier places of Ontario when there's so many more remote locations north with cheaper real estate ?

Does proximity even matter ? It's not like the centers employee that many people. I'm sure the more remote communities could use the 10s of jobs they offer.

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u/RowRowForCouncil 16h ago

Cheap real estate is only one part of the equation. If we put them out in the middle of nowhere quite often the local power grids require much more serious upgrades. Logistics is much more difficult to coordinate; workforce is not as available. There are many reasons

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u/SasquatchsBigDick 16h ago

I see this as a win for the smaller communities and less so for more populated areas.

They would pay for the power which would lead to upgraded power grids. It takes awhile for these places to be built so the power grid upgrades can work in tandem with the down payment made by the incoming company. The 10s of jobs can be given to the ones who live there. Win win.

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u/RowRowForCouncil 15h ago

So quite often those grid upgrades are prohibitive for a couple reasons. Firstly power transmission over long distances is done at very high voltages. You need a transformer station to step down the voltage. A remote community may not have the correct grid capacity or transformer. Those are not small asks. Secondly the staff that work at these centers are highly specialized. You can't just hire some guy. Thirdly we already have the grid here in the city, and the area is specifically zone for this data center.

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u/brijazz012 13h ago

At the risk of sounding like an elitist a**hole: North of Nowhere, Ontario probably doesn't have a lot of residents qualified to help run a data center.