Doug Ford says Ontario needs data centres to protect Canadians from Donald Trump

“Ontario has a choice: we can build the economy of the future and ensure Canadians’ data remains in Canada or we can get left behind and risk Canadians’ data being sent to the U.S. and into the hands of President Trump,” the premier said.

“The worst thing we could ever do (is) let President Trump control our data. That guy would cut us off in about three seconds and so we need to make sure we have data sovereignty in our own hands,” said Ford.

“As we gather here today workers and businesses across Ontario continue to be threatened by U.S. tariffs including President Trump’s latest threat of new tariffs up to 50 per cent,” he said, referring to ongoing trade talks between Canadian and American officials ahead of Wednesday’s deadline imposed by the White House.

“While we may not be able to control President Trump we can and are controlling the decisions we make here in Ontario,” said Ford.

“Which is exactly what we did last week when we announced our Data Centre Playbook,” he said, referring to the province’s new framework for regulating the big energy-consuming facilities used to power artificial intelligence. 

With Mississauga and Oakville imposing a one-year moratorium on new data centres and other municipalities concerned about them, Ford noted his government “will ensure” that they “cover the full cost of their electricity usage.”

There are about 100 data centres already up and running in the province.

“Ontario will not offer financial incentives to attract investments. Instead, we will rely on our natural competitive advantages including our clean and reliable electricity system, available land, cool climate and world-class workforce. We will only advance projects that strengthen Ontario and Canada’s control over sensitive data,” he said

“We will only advance projects that meet Ontario’s strict environmental standards around water consumption and noise.”

Mindful that some cities do not want them, Ford said the government “we will only advance projects that bring real benefits and significant investment in local infrastructure and host communities including investments in community centres, parks, roads, broadband infrastructure.

“We have a historic opportunity to deliver for communities across Ontario, attracting millions of dollars in tax revenue while safeguarding people’s information and keeping it out of President Trump’s hands.”

Queen’s Park has estimated AI companies could generate $122 billion in economic growth by 2035 and create more than 17,000 jobs annually.

The province is seeking public input on its data centre strategy through the Environmental Registry of Ontario and the Ontario Regulatory Registry for the next month.