Vice-President's response

Physical activities

Bell Canada is proposing to construct a new data centre in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, Saskatchewan. As proposed, the Bell AI Fabric Data Centre Project would involve the development of a 300-megawatt industrial artificial intelligence data centre on a 65-hectare agricultural site. Electricity for the project would be supplied through the provincial electrical grid. Additionally, project activities include pre-construction geotechnical and piling depth testing, site preparation and industrial infrastructure development.

Delegation of powers to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada

Under subsection 154(1) of the Impact Assessment Act (the IAA), the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature (the Minister) may, subject to any terms and conditions that the Minister specifies, delegate to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) any powers, duties, or functions that the Minister is authorized to exercise or perform under the IAA. The Minister delegated to the President or Vice-President of Operations of IAAC the authority to respond to requests for designation, for which limitations on designation described under subsection 9(7) of the IAA apply.

Decision

Non-designated physical activities

Reasons

Pursuant to subsection 9(7) of the IAA, the Minister must not exercise their power to designate if the carrying out of the physical activity has substantially begun or if a federal authority has exercised a power or performed a duty or function conferred on it under any Act of Parliament other than this Act that could permit the physical activity to be carried out, in whole or in part. Therefore, the Minister cannot designate the Bell AI Fabric Data Centre Project for the following reasons:

• The carrying out of the physical activity has substantially begun as physical undertakings have been carried out that have a direct linkage to the project, are an essential part of the project that are long-lasting, have resulted in substantive landscape alteration, and occurred over an extended period of time, including:
  • pile load testing and ground clearing began on April 21, 2026; and
  • work completed or currently underway includes site clearing and stripping, major earthworks, berm and sound barrier construction, grading, and site preparation activities.