Post #4122569

We, the undersigned, call on Toronto City Council to support Councillor Parthi Kandavel’s motion, Ensuring due diligence on data centres in Scarborough Southwest. STACK Infrastructure is seeking to expand its existing facility at 3650 Danforth Avenue into a 56-megawatt AI data centre. The site is surrounded by family neighbourhoods, and residents have raised serious questions about: Electricity demand and the capacity of the local power grid. Water consumption, water pressure and local infrastructure. Noise from regular operations and emergency backup generators. Environmental impacts. The cost of any required upgrades to public infrastructure. Local employment, tax revenue and tangible community benefits. Ownership and control of the computing infrastructure and the protection of Canadian data. Toronto is still developing its first city-wide approach to large-scale AI data centres. That work is expected to return to City Council in 2027, while the application for 3650 Danforth Avenue is moving through review now. We do not believe an application of this scale should be finalized while critical questions remain unanswered and before Toronto’s data-centre work can properly inform the review. We call on City Council to support Councillor Kandavel’s motion and: Align the timing of the application’s review with the City’s ongoing data-centre policy work. Require an independent peer review of the applicant’s noise study, including regular operations and emergency power-cut scenarios. Report publicly on electricity, water, environmental impacts, infrastructure capacity and costs, ongoing noise monitoring, local jobs and community benefits. Provide meaningful opportunities for residents to participate in the development of Toronto’s data-cententre policies. Clarify who would own, control and use the proposed computing capacity, what safeguards would apply to Canadian data, and what concrete benefits would be secured for Scarborough, Toronto and Canada. Ensure local councillors are notified when future large-scale data-centre applications are received. A project this large should have to demonstrate that local infrastructure can support it, that nearby residents will be protected, that the public understands who would bear its costs, and that meaningful community benefits and safeguards will be secured. Read more about this project here No approval before answers. Support Councillor Kandavel’s motion and add your name. Can you join me and take action? Click here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/the-danforth-data-centre-i-am-taking-action-at-city-hall?source=email&