Inside the protest against Meta’s $13 billion Alberta data centre
Revolutionary Communists, climate activists, and local residents protest over jobs, water, energy, and who controls Alberta’s industrial future.
BECOME A MEMBER
Article by Rebel News staff
Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show: Meta’s $13 billion Alberta data centre, communist activism on the protest line, and the collision between corporate power and local control.
The windswept fields north of Edmonton are no strangers to industry. But on this day in Morinville it wasn’t smokestacks or heavy machinery that drew the crowd. It was Silicon Valley’s next frontier. Meta is already breaking ground on a $13 billion data centre, promising thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions. The project sits in Alberta’s industrial heartland and has ignited a protest that is anything but typical.
This is not untouched wilderness. The site lies where Edmonton, Strathcona County and Sturgeon County meet, land zoned for heavy industry for about 15 years. It was earmarked for upgraders and major oil projects until the bottom fell out of the oil industry, leaving it idle and waiting for the next big thing. Meta’s arrival is that thing, and the objectors are not the usual suspects alone.
At the demonstration, Ezra was joined by fellow Rebel News reporter and local resident Sheila Gunn-Reed, who noted the unusual makeup of the crowd. Climate activists mixed with hardline anti-capitalists, including members of the Revolutionary Communist Party. The protest’s organizer, 20-year-old student Ben Burrill, first flagged in a St. Albert Tribune article, was eager to engage with media, including Rebel News. That openness is rare at Canadian protests these days.
What’s fuelling the outrage is clear. On one side the economic case is straightforward: thousands of jobs on land already zoned and waiting for its next industrial purpose. On the other, a coalition of critics raises deeper concerns about the infrastructure of artificial intelligence itself: water use, energy demand, and the sense that Alberta is being drafted into an AI race dominated by tech billionaires. Meta cites the region’s cool climate, water access, and the ability to support the facility with its own natural gas plant as the logistical reasons it chose the site.
The strategic question hung over the debate. If Alberta blocks the data centre, the computing power does not vanish. It simply gets built somewhere else, including in China. China is not slowing its own AI development, and the choice is whether Western countries will shape the technology or leave the field to regimes already using it for surveillance and control.
Protesters voiced broader fears about the influence of global tech titans and whether Alberta’s future will be dictated by their needs or by the communities that actually live there. Some worried that water and energy would be diverted to AI servers rather than local people. The presence of anti-capitalist activists added an ideological edge, mixing environmental anxiety with open skepticism of Big Tech motives and calls for “workers’ control.”
And yet, for all the radical slogans and revolutionary banners, the protest was civil, conversational, and surprisingly open to opposing views, a rare enough combination that it itself became part of the story.
COMMENTS
-
Fran g commented 2026-08-07 18:08:37 -0400AI capabilities and possibilities very much concern me. It has changed our world, I believe, mainly in many bad ways. Nobody really knows how far it will go when it gets into the wrong hands. In our world today there are sooooooo many bad hands. I wish it was never invented but now we have to deal with it. If we decide to totally stop it then you can be sure China will zoom ahead, they definatly are one of the bad big actors, and they will control us more than they already do. -
John Van Vliet commented 2026-08-07 12:10:19 -0400-Often we have protesters with tunnel vision of the world, China and the USA are both working on these projects by the private sector; it is up to the Governemnt to control privacy roles -
Cheryl Hirsche commented 2026-08-07 08:37:39 -0400What isn’t being discussed by both pro and anti AI data centres is Community Benefit Agreements CBAs as a condition of rezoning/development permits or AUC processes. Good examples include: (a la Grok)
Defined annual or phased payments (tied to MW capacity, revenue, or equipment value) that go into a dedicated community fund — not the general municipal pot.
Governance with municipal + resident representation and public annual reports.
Eligible uses prioritized for ratepayer-facing or highly visible local needs: power bill assistance programs, water system upgrades, local infrastructure, health/recreation, or emergency services.
Targeted Local Grants and Programs
Annual “Data Centre Community Action Grants” for local non-profits (Meta is launching one). Expand this so a fixed percentage of the provincial levy or property tax contribution is ring-fenced for local priorities chosen by residents.
STEM scholarships, local training/apprenticeship programs with colleges, and preferential local hiring targets. -
Silver Feet commented 2026-08-07 00:02:45 -0400The point of view of many of the people there were clearly wacko but they were open to dialogue and debate which tells mean they are not wacko as human beings. The AB independence representatives have a chance to enlighten these people through discussion and win them over unlike the people who are either paid activist or polarized lefties who both will never have their ideas challenged in a discussion.
-
Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2026-08-06 23:52:00 -0400Don’t forget that NDPer Heather McPherson wanted to have Elon Musk arrested for being a trillionaire. Now that SpaceX’s share price has pulled back, which was to be expected, he’s not worth that much. Is that arrest decree now rescinded? (Probably not. She doesn’t like billionaires, either, at least those who aren’t socialists like Neville Roy Singham or the Soroses.)
-
chris macdonald commented 2026-08-06 21:35:23 -0400Smart phones are a “nail in the coffin” for many people.
-
Ronald H Voss commented 2026-08-06 21:10:52 -0400As one gentleman pointed out, a concern was the process or lack thereof.
I understand no consultation or environmental assessment for the AI centres themselves. I am certainly not a leftwinger, but have some sympathy with that concern. One issue for me is that the gas-powered plants dedicated to AI centres seem to be exempt from the federal clean electricity regulations whereas the energy that I use from the commercial grid is. -
Bruce Atchison commented 2026-08-06 21:09:17 -0400Matt, the prize China will win is our freedom. We’ll be their slaves and they will regulate every detail of our lives. Do you want China to win or America, the only free country left on this God forsaken planet?
-
Bruce Atchison commented 2026-08-06 21:07:23 -0400What idiotic useful idiots! It’s big companies like Meta which can bring jobs, temporary and perminant, to Alberta. And even when the electricians are done with the centre, spin-off businesses will need their services. Same applies to brick layers. And I heard all that communist bilge in high school 50+ years ago. It’s government, not big business, that blocks progress and the betterment of the public’s lifestyles. I hope these dupes will change their minds once Sturgeon County becomes the richest in the province.
-
Matt Abrahams commented 2026-08-06 20:46:06 -0400Ezra, this datacentre is not going to host your Facebook or your Netflix or anything like that. This is an AI datacentre. It is going to host large language models and nothing else. This argument about Netflix and whatnot that you keep repeating ad neuseum is completely irrelevant.
As for “letting China win”, exactly what is the prize that will be won when the dust has settled?
