There's no proposal on the table to build a high-density data centre in Essex County at the moment, but Kingsville's Deputy Mayor thinks Essex County should be prepared for the eventuality that a developer proposes one.
The public has raised questions about the environmental impacts of data centres and their effect on water and hydro bills, and councillors confess they have a lot of questions too. De Yong hopes the study, up for debate on Wednesday evening, will provide some answers.
"At this time, municipalities don't have a planning framework to deal with any applications," said De Yong. "A study will allow municipalities to put any moratoriums on any current applications should they choose to, and it'll also provide recommendations for planning and land use policies."
Specifically, De Yong's motion calls for a study that will assess the regulatory framework needed to approve or deny data centres, investigate any existing small data centres in the region, and examine any existing studies.
De Yong admitted the issue has caught the imagination of the public. In Essex, Mayor Sherry Bondy recently told WindsorNewsToday.ca she had received in excess of 200 emails about data centres. De Yong didn't say if she's received many herself, but said some residents have confused a significant hydro upgrade in Essex County as being for data centres, when in reality, the upgrade is to address the hydro needs of the region's growing greenhouse industry.
It was at a recent Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting that De Yong realized the clock is ticking for Essex County to act.
"I sat at a table with the Hamilton councillor for Ward 3, which was dealing with it at that time. She was sharing her experience, and I realized Essex County needs to get ahead of this," she said.
Meanwhile, the Province of Ontario is proposing a new framework for data centres seeking to connect to the electricity grid. Under it, data centre projects will need approval from the Ministry of Energy and Mines. The legislation was introduced in June, and the public has until September 12 to comment.
The province is expected to publish a provincial regulatory framework by year's end. De Yong would like to see more in the legislation giving municipalities the right to say no.
"They have to recognize that municipalities must be offered a right of refusal prior to anyone getting approval to connect to a grid," said De Yong. "Giving municipalities control over whether they want these things in their community or not."
The Town of Essex will vote on a year-long moratorium on data centres at its next council meeting on September 8.
The data centre sector is forecasted to represent 13 per cent of new electricity demand in Ontario by 2035.
