CALGARY — Alberta is preparing to tighten its data-centre rules to discourage “speculative” developments and projects being built too close to residential areas, said the province’s technology minister, adding that he plans to table the legislation as early as next week.

“A lot of the speculative plays that do not have substance, that do not have a real business plan, and who have chosen terrible sites—that’s not something that Alberta is going to tolerate,” Nate Glubish said Friday in an interview with The Logic. “And we’re going to make it very clear in those rules.”

The regulatory crackdown follows Alberta’s emergence as the Canadian epicentre for AI data-centre activity, on the heels of Meta announcing its $13-billion campus northeast of Edmonton, the first in what is shaping up to be a wave of large investments by hyperscalers in the province.

Alberta’s electricity grid operator is tracking roughly 28 gigawatts of power demand sought for data centres, according to the latest monthly tally, up from around 20 gigawatts at the end of 2025. The proposals include Beacon Data Centers’ 800-megawatt Heartland campus—Anthropic is reportedly in talks to lease it—and an up to 3.6-gigawatt development neighbouring Meta’s project called Lynx, first reported by The Logic, among others.

The Alberta Industrial Heartland, an area northeast of Edmonton with extensive oil and gas processing and petrochemical plants, is emerging as a hub for the facilities, with Meta’s campus among several projects proposed for the region. Glubish said other tech companies of Meta’s “calibre” are “seriously looking at Alberta,” adding that further development in the Industrial Heartland would not surprise him.

“That location makes a lot of sense,” he said.

Still, Glubish said, the province is prepared to crack down on more speculative developments, which could include projects proposed by companies that have yet to secure customers for their data centres, or financing to build them. 

The forthcoming rules could also include new province-wide restrictions on how close data centres and their power plants can be to residential areas, as well as measures to address broader concerns about land use, including farmland. Glubish pointed to the proposed Synapse Data Centre in Olds, a town north of Calgary, where provincial regulators rejected plans for a power plant that would have been just 30 metres from the nearest homes.

“We want to make it perfectly clear that you’re not going to build a one-and-a-half gigawatt power plant and data centre right across the street from a residential subdivision. That’s ridiculous,” he said.

The new rules are a response to sharp criticism the provincial government heard during town halls it held on its AI data-centre strategy in August and September. The measures seek to impose tighter guardrails on the sector, even as Alberta continues its bullish approach to courting development.

Glubish has led the province’s efforts to court hyperscalers, frequently traveling to meet with tech executives in Silicon Valley to pitch Alberta’s abundant natural gas supplies and deregulated electricity market. Unlike most other provinces, where electricity is largely governed by a Crown utility, Alberta’s market allows data-centre developers to strike long-term deals directly with independent power producers—typically for new gas-fired generation plants to supply the enormous amounts of electricity they need.

Natural gas producers and pipeline companies are embracing the surge in interest. While the names of the tech giants attached to prospective projects typically remain closely guarded until deals are announced, several major Canadian energy companies are openly pursuing gigawatt-scale generation projects. 

Pempina Pipeline, TC Energy and Tourmaline Oil have all acknowledged pursuing deals over electricity-generation projects tied to large data centres, with Pembina moving ahead with its multibillion-dollar power plant to supply Meta’s planned facility. 

Glubish, though, acknowledged that the cautionary signals are getting stronger—not least the results of the November U.S. midterm elections, where voters overwhelmingly rejected pro-AI candidates or supported restrictions on data-centre developments in local ballot measures.

He said he wasn’t surprised by the outcome, calling the results a “cautionary tale” for jurisdictions that pursued development with inadequate oversight.

Alberta initially capped grid access for large data centres and is developing rules that favour projects that bring their own power supplies. The government says its approach will help limit the risk of booming data centre development driving up electricity bills or disrupting grid reliability.

“It was the Wild West down there, and they didn’t have the checks and balances that we have here in Alberta,” he said.