Frustrated Saint John residents press AI data-centre proponents on unanswered questions - CBC

The open house Thursday night was required by the province's Energy and Utilities Board and the environmental impact assessment process. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)Social SharingTempers flared and frustration mounted at an overflowing open house Thursday night that became a contentious exchange between residents of a west Saint John community and proponents of a hyperscale data centre proposed for the area. 

“I think it demonstrates that there is no social licence for this project,” Lorneville resident Adam Wilkins said to reporters after the meeting. 

“No AI data centres” was the theme of the evening. The words appeared on picket signs held by some of the roughly 200 people in the room — there were many more outside — and are on nearly every lawn in the neighbourhood. 

“There is no amount of community benefits that will justify the pollution and harm to our health and well-being,” said Wilkins, who's considered a leader in the fight against the project.

“And they don't care, and they're not willing to answer questions."

Wilkins is concerned the proponents "will attempt to proceed without social licence.”

Lorneville resident Adam Wilkins says his neighbourhood wanted to convey the message that there is no social licence for the project in their community. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)

Beacon AI Centres and VoltaGrid announced plans for a 390-megawatt data centre in the Spruce Lake Industrial Park in October 2025. The proposal has received significant pushback since then and become a flashpoint issue in the city, as similar projects have in many others. 

The project would include an onsite natural gas plant built by VoltaGrid, which would emit more than 750,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, according to an environmental impact assessment filing.  

Thursday night’s session was a requirement of the province’s environmental impact assessment process and the Energy and Utilities Board.

The session was exactly one year to the day after residents confronted company CEOs Nathan Ough of VoltaGrid and Joseph Shovlin of Beacon AI Centres over the project. 

N.B. Power says 10 data centre projects have applications to connect to electrical system

Among the residents' questions: what type of community benefits could the project bring, what impact would a data centre have on the air and surrounding environment, and how much water would it use.

Residents say they have been ignored by the company for an entire year. At the open house, tensions grew, when the same questions were initially met with silence from the proponents. Many questioned the point of holding the event at all.

“We have sent numerous emails and received absolutely no replies,” resident Jill LeBlanc said.

“We were told a year ago that we would get answers and our questions would be treated transparently. Neither has come to fruition.”

When Shovlin and representatives from Stantec and the province did respond, they were often met with jeering, heckling, ringing bells and demands for more direct answers. 

Beacon AI CEO Joseph Shovlin said the company and consultants would take the questions that weren't answered at the session and come back to the community with information. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)

Climate activist Ashley Anthony was the MC for the event and attempted to shut down loud interruptions from the crowd multiple times. Shovlin at one point said the meeting was not productive.

Shovlin said proponents would come back to the community with answers for questions that were not addressed at Thursday's event. 

“Knowing that we asked these questions a year ago, why did you come here this evening without the clear answers for the community?” Anthony asked Shovlin.

She said the information session felt like an empty “token” gesture to tick a box that was part of the environmental review process and not “something done in good faith.”

“This is us trying to build a healthy dialogue with people that are shutting us out, ignoring us and refusing to answer us," Anthony said.

VoltaGrid’s Nathan Ough did not attend the session. 

CBC News requested an interview with Shovlin at the session but he declined.  

Shovlin and a New Brunswick government official addressed some questions about the review process. Shovlin said the project doesn’t have a tenant. 

“We're not presumptuous that we're going to get approval,” he said.

“We're working through this process. So there is no tenant commitment, and I can categorically confirm that.”

Crystale Harty, director of the province's Environmental Impact Assessment branch, said the assessment is a planning tool to help avoid or mitigate environmental impacts and, in some cases, compensate for environmental impacts. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)

Residents expressed distrust of the provincial process, saying projects are nearly always approved. They questioned why the project was not under comprehensive review. 

The proposal is going through a “determination review,” which involves subject matter experts from all government levels who make recommendations on the conditions that a project should meet to move forward, according to the provincial government website.

The site says a comprehensive review is used “if the minister suspects project impacts may be significant or decides that more study is needed to further assess these impacts.”

The criteria for this type of review, for example, would include projects with new, unproven technology, explained Crystale Harty, director of the province’s EIA branch.

She told the crowd the review process would result in one of three outcomes — the entire project would be approved, denied or it would be given approval with conditions. 

“If the ultimate goal of some of the people here is to stop the project, the EIA process is not intended to do that," Harty said. "That's not what it's made for."

She said the primary purpose of the EIA is to be a “planning tool” with a goal  to avoid or mitigate environmental impacts and compensate for certain types of impacts. The process includes tools to deny projects.

“But because it's really intended to be a project planning tool, most projects get through the process with many conditions to mitigate those impacts,” Harty said. 

She said the branch will look at the results of Thursday's meeting and make a decision on whether more engagement meetings are needed. She said additional studies and information on the review will be posted soon.

Nipun Tiwari is a reporter assigned to community engagement and based in Saint John, New Brunswick. He can be reached at nipun.tiwari@cbc.ca.