This week, Alberta regulators rejected a proposed data centre power project near Olds. The decision may have been justified, the proposed facility was extremely close to the community, but it also highlights a larger concern: Are AI data centres about to run the same Canadian gauntlet as LNG?

Fifteen years ago, Canada had more than 30 LNG export applications. While we spent years debating, permitting, and delaying, the United States and Australia built facilities and became global LNG leaders. Canada’s first large export terminal only began operating in 2025, nearly a decade after the first major U.S. facility. Today, the United States is the world’s largest LNG exporter.

Source: Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Kpler. Data as of Aug 20, 2026

Over that same decade, Canadian real GDP per person barely moved, while the United States, and, to a lesser extent, Australia pulled ahead. LNG was certainly not the only reason, but their willingness to build large, productive infrastructure contributed investment, exports, and economic activity that Canada largely missed.

Source: Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Kpler. Data as of Aug 20, 2026

Data centres have legitimate drawbacks. They consume enormous amounts of power, can affect water supply, and create fewer permanent jobs than their construction cost might suggest. But they also attract billions of dollars, create demand for Canadian electricity and natural gas, strengthen local infrastructure, and place Canada inside one of the most important economic buildouts of our lifetime. Meta’s recently announced Alberta project represents more than $13 billion of investment alone.

Canada does not need to approve every project. But if every major project faces years of uncertainty and opposition, capital will do what it did during the LNG boom: build somewhere else.

Canada doesn’t need to say yes to everything, but “not here” cannot remain our industrial strategy.

I have also included a piece from our CIBC Economics team entitled “Will the Midterms matter?”.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call at any time.

Have a great weekend.

Milan