The Government of Canada has introduced a national framework setting out how data centres should be built in the country, with 23 companies from the data centre, cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and technology sectors signing on.
Canada’s Responsible Data Centre Development Principles were announced by the Government of Canada Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Minister and Southern Ontario Federal Economic Development Agency Minister Evan Solomon.
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Solomon was joined at the announcement by Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) President Tim Tierney.
The framework sets five expectations for data centre projects.
These facilities must deliver lasting local benefits, must not shift electricity costs onto Canadians, minimise water use and environmental impacts, be transparent about local impacts, and must bring strategic value to the country.
Solomon said: “Canada is building the digital infrastructure we need to lead in the age of AI, grow our economy and strengthen our sovereignty.
“But how we build matters. Data centres must protect ratepayers, respect water and energy resources, and create lasting benefits for the communities that host them.
“These principles set a clear national standard: If you build in Canada, you must build responsibly and transparently and you must build for Canadians.”
The government said decisions on data centre developments are fundamentally local, shaped by regional priorities, regulatory approvals and community needs.
The principles are designed to sit alongside existing provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous regulatory processes, providing a nationally recognised baseline for communities assessing major projects.
Canada currently depends heavily on infrastructure and services located outside the country for compute, cloud and data storage used in AI.
The government said additional domestic capacity would give the country more resilience and choice, and help researchers, innovators and businesses build, deploy and scale their work.
Data centres are described by the government as critical infrastructure, supporting health care, financial services, scientific research and secure government systems, as well as the digital economy and AI.
Signatories include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Anthropic, Beacon Data Centers, Bell Canada (BCE), BUZZ High Performance Computing (BUZZ HPC), Cohere, Cologix, Denvr Dataworks, Equinix and eStruxture.
The list also covers Google, Hypertec Group, Meta, Micrologic, Microsoft, OpenAI, OVHcloud, Prologis, QScale, Sovereign Digital Infrastructure, TELUS, ThinkOn and Urbacon Data Centre Solutions.
