Cathy Dobson/The Independent

MPP Bob Bailey says an AI-related data centre may be interested in locating in Sarnia-Lambton and officials have spoken directly to him about the project.

“I can’t say much more about it but we need that here,” he said while talking to reporters at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday where he was guest speaker.

“It would be great for jobs…We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars just to build it.”

Bailey said the large data centres currently being built in Ontario require at least 100 megawatts of power and that’s something Sarnia-Lambton could offer.

“Of course, they’d have to make an application to the IESO (Independent Electricity System Operator),” he said.  The IESO manages Ontario’s power system and plans for the province’s future energy needs.

In turn, that could expedite development of a gas-fired 500-megawatt generating station proposed for the former Lambton Generating Station site in St. Clair Township, Bailey said.

He said a data centre would help diversify the local economy and be well received by the community.

“It’s not the old smoke stack image,” Bailey said.  “It would be stepping away from what we’re used to supporting here.”

He said his contact with the unnamed company was a change of pace for him.

“It was one of the few people who’ve come to see me who don’t want money.  What they need is to be able to access the grid.”

Since the advent of cloud computing in the mid-2000s, data centres in Canada have dramatically increased in size and number.  They tend to range anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 square feet and require a lot of water to operate.

Following Bailey’s comments, Matthew Slotwinski, CEO at the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, said he couldn’t comment except to say that at any given time his office is “working with companies considering data centre investment.”