Windsor's mayor won't dismiss a proposed data centre out of hand if an investor came knocking, but Drew Dilkens doesn't foresee any more coming to the city.
Windsor has one data centre already, on Goyeau Street, owned by MSNi GDCL.
It's obviously not one of the big data centres in the U.S. or the U.K. that you may have heard of, the ones that disturb nearby residents with their constant hum, are blamed for raising local temperatures, or have a voracious appetite for power and water, sometimes to the detriment of nearby residents.
Drew Dilkens thinks it's unlikely Windsor will be called on to host a large data centre simply because it doesn't have the excess energy or land for one.
"I think it would be very difficult for Windsor to host the massive data centres like you see popping up elsewhere," he said. "They have huge power needs and we have to make sure we have power for businesses that are actually going to create a lot of jobs."
The City of Hamilton recently imposed a moratorium on new data centres until it has bylaws to govern them. Dilkens is cool to the idea of pre-emptively imposing rules when it's not an issue in the city.
"I think it would be too soon to do that, and we would never get into a proposition to host a data centre without a full understanding of what the environmental impacts are, what the employment impacts are, the impacts on servicing and how much power it would need, and what that would mean for our ability to continue to attract other businesses in the region."
Should a proposal make itself known, he says city council will thoroughly investigate the proposal like it would any other.
"We would never say no to someone who wants to have a business conversation, but they'd have to make a pretty strong case that that type of development is going to make sense for our region based on simply the number of employees they're going to hire and the amount of space they need in order to deliver their service."
All of that said, Dilkens doesn't believe people are wrong to be concerned about the increase in data centres around the world.
