Meta is building its first Canadian data centre in Sturgeon County, just north of Edmonton.

The investment is worth more than $13 billion. Alberta's government is calling it one of the largest private sector investments in Canadian history.

The project will create more than 3,000 construction jobs and 300 permanent operational jobs once it's running. Alberta expects around $250 million a year in royalties, taxes and fees once the facility is fully operating.

Meta is also putting $60 million into local roads and water infrastructure around the site.

This story matters beyond Alberta.

Last year, a company called Pembina, along with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor, started building a $4.6 billion natural gas power plant in that same area. It's called Project Greenlight. At the time, nobody knew who the customer would be.

Now we know. It was built for exactly this.

Alberta also built specific rules for AI data centres before this deal ever came together. Companies have to fund their own power infrastructure. They have to meet strict water requirements. Meta's facility uses a closed loop, liquid cooled system, and the province says onsite water use is limited to fire safety and equipment maintenance, not ongoing cooling.

Alberta's electrical system operator says there's roughly 1,200 megawatts of spare grid capacity available for data centre use without straining the existing system.

Premier Danielle Smith framed it as a strategy that's been years in the making. "We created the right conditions to attract world leading investments while protecting the interests of Albertans," she said.

Meta's VP of data centre strategy, Gary Demasi, said Sturgeon County had the infrastructure, workforce, and community partnerships the company was looking for.

Not everyone is convinced this is a clean win. Environmental advocates are pushing back on the water and electricity promises, arguing that data centre companies make similar assurances everywhere and the long term impact on local resources and power costs isn't fully known yet.

That pushback is worth taking seriously.

Now compare this to what happened just days earlier. Canada told the United Arab Emirates it doesn't currently have shovel ready projects in energy, critical minerals, AI, or infrastructure to deploy on a $70 billion investment pledge, one that was made seven months ago.

Same country. Same category of investment. One province had the power plant, the regulations, and the land ready before the investor showed up. The federal government, seven months into a massive pledge, still didn't have a project ready to build.

This also lines up with a KPMG poll from earlier this week showing 42 percent of Canadian manufacturers are considering a move to the US, citing uncertainty and slow approval processes as the reason.

Alberta just showed what the alternative looks like.

Until next time,

Dean

P.S. If you run a business or manage projects in Canada, I want to know: what's the single biggest thing slowing you down, permits, financing, red tape, or something else? Reply and tell me, I'm putting together next week's issue on where the real friction is.