Manitoba’s government has rejected plans for a massive artificial intelligence data centre southeast of Winnipeg, with Premier Wab Kinew stating that the scale of the project, its energy requirements and its potential community impact outweigh the expected economic upside.
Speaking at the Manitoba legislature, Kinew was direct in his assessment of the proposal. “There’s a big threat to the environment and not much benefit to the economy,” he told reporters, while also expressing doubts about long-term demand for hyperscale facilities given the rapid pace of technological change in computing.
The project was being developed by U.S.-based Jet.AI in partnership with British Columbia company Consensus Core Technologies. The plan envisioned a large data centre near Île des Chênes, powered primarily by natural gas turbines, on a site of around 142 hectares, with the potential to scale into the hundreds of megawatts.
Following the government’s decision, Consensus CEO Wayne Lloyd said the company is reviewing the position and remains open to further discussions with the province. He stressed the project’s potential economic contribution, including employment and tax revenue.
“It creates a significant amount of well-paying union jobs both during and after construction,” Lloyd said. “It will also provide millions of dollars in annual local tax revenue that would directly fund major community benefits.”
He added that the facility would not rely on Manitoba’s provincial power grid and would instead operate independently.
Premier Kinew acknowledged that Manitoba already hosts AI-related data infrastructure and expects further development in the sector, but stressed that hyperscale projects represent a fundamentally different level of industrial intensity.
“It’s very clear AI is transforming our economy and our society,” he said. “But I think Manitobans want that to happen in a way where AI serves us and we’re not servants to AI.”
