MONTREAL — Amazon’s Quebec footprint continues to grow months after the company mothballed two million square feet of warehouse space in the province, despite Premier François Legault saying he wanted to cancel the government’s contracts with the company. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing subsidiary, is building two data centres in Varennes, a suburb on Montreal’s south shore, according to Marc Wulfraat of MWPVL International, a Montreal-based supply chain consulting firm. Amazon’s existing data centre, known as YUL55, opened in Varennes in 2016. 

One of the new data centres, located next to YUL55, will be 155,000 square feet and is set to open this year, according to Wulfraat. A third similarly sized data centre will open in 2027. Amazon acquired the land for the latter from Quebec construction giant Broccolini for $41.3 million in 2024, according to a source familiar with the transaction, who requested anonymity because they weren’t permitted to discuss its details.

Legault’s government has been critical of Amazon’s decision, in January, to halt its delivery operations in the province. The move followed the unionization of an Amazon facility in Laval in May 2024, though the company maintains the shuttering of seven distribution facilities was unrelated to the unionization drive. Amazon has since subcontracted its Quebec deliveries to Montreal-based logistics company Intelcom and its delivery times have more than doubled on some items in the province.

In an exchange with opposition leader Ruba Ghazal in late February, Legault said Amazon’s departure from Quebec, which resulted in more than 1,900 layoffs, was “unacceptable” and “done in a brutal manner.” He said the government was reviewing the province’s contracts with Amazon and hopes to avoid further commitments with the company. “We are also in the process of seeing whether we can effectively break our Amazon contracts,” Legault said. 

Despite this, AWS is growing in Quebec. The subsidiary is actively petitioning the Quebec government regarding “its potential future expansion” throughout the province, according to lobby registry documents.

Amazon’s YUL55 facility was the company’s first Canadian data centre. AWS, which accounted for 58 per cent of Amazon’s 2024 operating profit, is a fast-growing segment within the company, due in part to its suite of AI products. “It’s not up to the Quebec government to comment on the wishes and future projects of a private company,” government executive council spokesperson Jessica Leblanc told The Logic.

Quebec is seen as an ideal place for tech companies to set up power-hungry data centres. “AWS has built out infrastructure in Quebec because of the province’s low-cost electricity and plentiful supply,” Wulfraat said. Hydro-Québec has the lowest commercial electricity rates in Canada and the U.S. Amazon pays market rates for its electricity, according to Hydro-Québec spokesperson Caroline Des Rosiers. 

Quebec’s Amazon contracts are worth $170 million, according to an estimate from the province’s cybersecurity ministry in February. They include AWS cloud computing services for the province’s public security and elections authority systems, according to government records. 

Laval-based construction company Montoni built Amazon’s YUL55 data centre, which is located next to Hydro-Québec’s research institute. Hydro-Québec covered the $2-million cost to connect YUL55 to the electricity grid, with the understanding that the company would reimburse the utility, according to Le Journal de Québec. “All customers pay their network connection costs, according to the rules and agreements in force,” said Hydro-Québec’s Des Rosiers.

The land on which YUL55 sits is owned by Montoni founder and CEO Dario Montoni by way of a numbered company. Another AWS data centre site less than two kilometres from YUL55 is owned by British Columbia-based Amazon Canada Fulfillment Service, which was incorporated in 2019.

AWS spokesperson Kim Gradek declined to answer questions regarding the company’s Quebec data centres, though said the location of AWS infrastructure is based on a number of factors, including the availability of renewable energy “and the local government’s long-term commitment to investing in technology infrastructure.”