Hamilton-owned corporation signs NDA over AI data centre

According to Canada's National Observer, Hamilton Enterprises Holding Corporation -- a corporation wholly owned by the City of Hamilton, Ontario -- signed a non-disclosure agreement with a developer involved in a proposed AI data centre. The NDA became public after Hamilton Coun. Brad Clark raised it at a Hamilton Enterprises annual general meeting. The outlet reports Hamilton Enterprises president and CEO Jeff Cowan described the NDA as "standard commercial practice." National Observer also reports that Microsoft, in an email to the outlet, confirmed its public commitment under its "Community-First AI Infrastructure Plan" to identify and terminate existing NDAs with local governments in some cases -- a policy Microsoft announced in January 2026.

Hamilton has become one of the most contested data-centre battlegrounds in Canada. Slate Asset Management's proposed Steelport project on the former Stelco waterfront lands -- reported at roughly 400MW -- drew more than 70 speakers and over 1,600 public submissions in opposition before the city's committee of adjustment denied a related land severance application. In late June 2026, Hamilton city council voted 15-1 to advance a citywide moratorium on new data-centre construction, with a final bylaw vote expected in mid-July; councillors have cited transparency, power costs, and water use as central concerns. It is against this backdrop that a city-owned corporation's own NDA -- rather than a private developer's -- drew scrutiny.

NDAs at the site-selection stage are common in data-centre real estate and utility interconnection deals, but they withhold exactly the operational detail -- expected load, cooling method, water draw -- that grid planners, environmental reviewers, and independent researchers need to model regional capacity and community impact. When the counterparty signing the NDA is itself a municipal entity, that opacity extends into public governance, not just private negotiation, which is part of why it triggered council questions here.

Watch Hamilton's moratorium bylaw vote expected around July 15, 2026, whether the terms of the Hamilton Enterprises NDA are disclosed or released, and whether Microsoft's stated commitment to unwind local-government NDAs extends to non-Microsoft projects like this one. Given the NDA's terms are undisclosed by design, treat any specifics beyond what officials have confirmed publicly as unverified.