Telus and Canada Announce Three AI Data Centres

Per BetaKit, BNN Bloomberg (The Canadian Press) and The Logic, the Government of Canada and Telus announced a three-facility AI data centre cluster in British Columbia. Reporting says the package includes an expansion of Telus's existing Kamloops data centre and two Vancouver facilities - a repurposed 100,000-square-foot site in Mount Pleasant and a larger downtown Vancouver development near BC Place. BetaKit reports the announcement was delivered by AI Minister Evan Solomon alongside Telus CEO Darren Entwistle, and that Solomon said, "The Telus project 'reflects the kind of ambitious infrastructure we need as a country.'"

Reporting by The Logic and BetaKit attributed capacity figures to the companies and announcement materials. The coverage states the combined cluster is expected to reach up to 150 megawatts of power by 2032 and to house more than 60,000 GPUs across the three sites, with the Kamloops expansion reaching up to 25 megawatts, the Mount Pleasant site around 26 megawatts, and the downtown facility capable of up to 100 megawatts when completed. BetaKit notes Telus's existing Kamloops site currently holds up to 12,500 GPUs and can generate up to 25 megawatts. The Logic reports Telus has so far secured 85 megawatts of electricity from BC Hydro for the project.

Editorial analysis: Reporting frames the announcement as the first named project under Ottawa's national strategy to promote large-scale, domestic AI compute capacity. Public coverage highlights three policy tensions that commonly accompany urban AI data centre projects: access to grid-scale renewable power, integration with dense urban real estate, and local jobs versus community impacts. Several outlets note timelines reported by Telus: the Kamloops expansion and Mount Pleasant conversion are targeted to open later this year, while the downtown Vancouver site is slated to begin coming online in 2029, per The Logic and BNN Bloomberg.

Editorial analysis: For ML engineers and infrastructure teams, a domestic cluster of this scale implies closer, lower-latency options for Canadian research and industry customers who prefer onshore compute for data-sovereignty and compliance reasons, according to public reporting. Industry coverage emphasizes the emphasis on renewable power sourcing via BC Hydro, which matters for teams tracking sustainability-adjusted compute costs. Reporting also identifies Westbank as a real-estate partner on the Vancouver facilities, which is relevant for anyone evaluating colocation, interconnect, or campus-access models in the region.

Editorial analysis: Observers will track:

• •the final terms and amount of federal backing, since outlets report Ottawa and Telus had not disclosed a completed funding deal at the announcement
• •concrete grid and permitting approvals tied to BC Hydro allocations and municipal integration in Mount Pleasant and downtown Vancouver
• •precise commercial offers and tenancy models Telus publishes for AI customers, including pricing, multi-tenant versus sovereign-only guarantees, and on-site networking/interconnect options. Public reporting indicates Telus and Ottawa framed this as supporting domestic academia and industry collaboration, but details on access terms and timelines remain to be published