Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is doubling down on a complaint his office sent to a university professor in Toronto who commented on a proposed artificial intelligence data centre.
A staffer from Houston’s office sent the complaint last week, emailing a copy of the message to a CBC News reporter and the chair of the professor’s department.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Premier Tim Houston said he’s glad his communications adviser sent the critical email.
“I’m happy he sent that message to provide some additional information to somebody who was clearly lacking in information but yet speaking as an expert,” Houston said.
The feedback came after Sibo Chen, an associate professor of communication at Toronto Metropolitan University, gave a media interview to CBC saying that public concerns about the data centre project over water usage and electricity rate hikes were valid.
William Burns, a communications adviser with the premier’s office, said Chen’s “slanted comments” were irresponsible and not backed by research on the local community.
Sibo Chen, an associate professor in the Toronto Metropolitan University’s school of professional communication, is shown in this undated handout photo. (Sibo Chen/Handout/The Canadian Press)
“Nova Scotians deserve facts, not speculation presented in a way that creates unnecessary anxiety,” said Burns’ email, which Chen shared with The Canadian Press.
Members of the public and opposition parties in the province have expressed concerns about Everwind Fuels’ proposed multi-billion dollar data centre, which would be leased to U.S. AI company Anthropic for 20 years.
A petition to stop the development of AI data centres in Nova Scotia on Change.org had over 24,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.
Chen suggested that copying the department chair implies the government was trying to intimidate him.
“I actually study how scholars get harassed when they go to do knowledge mobilization … I’m becoming the subject of my own study,” he said.
Chen says he has studied environmental controversies in Canada for 10 years and this is the first time he has received a complaint from a premier’s office.
“I’m very critical about the oilsands, but I never received a complaint from the premier’s office in Alberta,” he said in a video interview Wednesday. His comments, he said, were about the general implications of AI data centre development and backed by peer-reviewed research.
The premier said he doesn’t know how often his team reaches out to academics to criticize the comments they make to the media.
“I’m not sure how often we are communicating with people who are presenting in the media, but I hope it’s a lot,” Houston said.
“If somebody is presenting themselves as an expert and speaking definitively on something that they’re wrong on, I think it’s incumbent on all of us … [to] say there’s some information you’re missing,” he added.
Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender called Houston’s comments disturbing.
“The comments that we heard just now from the premier, that he hopes that his staff are reaching out to people in the media regularly to correct them on their professional point of view, that should actually send a chill down peoples’ spines,” Chender told reporters Wednesday.
Chender said the premier’s comments lead her to believe that his staff are “bullying” independent experts who criticize his government’s projects.
The 18,600-square-metre data centre would draw 95 megawatts of electricity in its first phase and 420 megawatts after an expected expansion in mid-2028. Everwind says it will cover the cost of all electricity infrastructure so that project will not increase power rates.
Everwind estimates that the facility will use an average of 100,000 litres of water per day in its first phase and 500,000 litres per day after the expansion is completed.
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In his email to Chen, Burns said the government will not support a project that increases power rates to customers.
He also highlighted another CBC interview, where Lois Landry, the warden of Richmond County explained there are provisions in place to protect residents and limit the amount of water the data centre would draw from nearby Lake Landrie.
Burns also suggested that as a professor from a Toronto university, Chen could not understand the impact of data centre in Nova Scotia.
EverWind’s data centre will be in Point Tupper, just outside Port Hawkesbury, N.S. (Taryn Grant/CBC)
Chen said the response from Burns suggests the government is sending the message that citizens don’t need to be concerned about the project.
However, he said the province hasn’t provided enough information to the public about the proposed data centre and he understands why Nova Scotians are worried.
Chen said local university professors may not feel comfortable expressing their concerns about the data centre after seeing the pushback he received from the Nova Scotia government.
“I think that’s precisely why people don’t want to comment on this,” he said.
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