OP/ED: Canada has a Generational Opportunity to Help Build the AI Future
By Contributor
By Gwyn Morgan at C2C Journal
Artificial intelligence is no longer some futuristic curiosity, morphing with dizzying speed into a technology that’s reshaping nearly every sector of the economy. Whether Canadians welcome or dread that transformation is beside the point. The real question is whether Canada will seize the enormous opportunities that AI and its underlying infrastructure present – or repeat ruinous policy mistakes of the past.
The pace of change is astonishing. The world’s five leading AI “hyperscalers” – a new word signifying companies building AI data centres that consume on the order of 1 gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) of electricity, comparable to a city of about 1 million people – are projected to make capital investments totalling US$780 billion this year. Microsoft alone has committed more than US$100 billion to its OpenAI partnership. AI has become one of our era’s defining economic competitions.
It has also become one of the defining security challenges. The ongoing controversies surrounding Anthropic’s Mythos AI line illustrate both the rapidity and the risks of AI’s advance. During internal testing, the autonomous reasoning model reportedly escaped its “digital sandbox,” concealed aspects of its behaviour and gained access to the internet before Anthropic suspended public access amid U.S. national security concerns.
But while media headlines largely focus on spectacular advances and failures like Mythos, an equally consequential story is unfolding on the ground. AI requires enormous physical infrastructure unprecedented in the tech world. Every breakthrough depends upon vast data centres that consume vast volumes of electricity, cooling and computing power. Building these new hyperscale data centres has become a global race.
China understands this. It is rapidly expanding AI infrastructure, relying largely on inexpensive coal-fired electricity despite the environmental cost. The US is taking a different approach, combining abundant natural gas, nuclear power and regulatory reforms intended to accelerate investment. President Donald Trump’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy reflects an understanding that leadership in AI will depend as much on reliable electricity as on software engineers.
Europe, by contrast, is struggling. Years of rising electricity costs, dependence on intermittent renewable generation, ageing power grids and burdensome permitting processes have left the continent poorly positioned to compete. Analysts estimate that preparing Europe’s electrical system for AI-related demand could require US$1 trillion in new investment, while permitting delays stretching toward a decade make rapid expansion nearly impossible.
Canada occupies a far more enviable position – if we choose to capitalize on it.
The Prairie provinces, in particular, offer multiple advantages for hyperscale AI development: a cooler climate that reduces cooling costs, abundant flat land, a near-limitless supply of affordable natural gas for generating reliable electricity, and a ubiquitous pipeline network for getting the fuel to wherever a new data centre might be located.
Further, Alberta’s deregulated electricity market shortens construction timelines, helping explain why dozens of AI projects have already been proposed and why enormous developments such as the Wonder Valley project near Grande Prairie are attracting international attention. Just on July 2, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced that a 932- megawatt, $4.6 billion power plant for a new hyperscale AI data centre to be built northeast of Edmonton had received its final investment decision.
The AI infrastructure boom is the sort of generational opportunity that then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau squandered a decade ago in deliberately keeping Canada from becoming a major player in liquefied natural gas exports. We cannot afford to make the same mistake twice.
AI presents a profound irony. The same technology creating this infrastructure boom is simultaneously threatening millions of white-collar jobs. Software developers increasingly rely on AI to generate computer code. Administrative work, accounting, legal research and countless other professions are becoming increasingly susceptible to automation. Statistics Canada estimates that three out of every five Canadian workers occupy jobs with exposure to AI technologies.
Still, someone must build and operate the new AI infrastructure. A gigawatt-scale facility requires thousands of skilled workers during construction, jobs cannot be outsourced to an algorithm. Electricians, plumbers, welders, carpenters, mechanics and countless other tradespeople perform work requiring physical presence, practical judgment and manual skill – qualities that remain extraordinarily difficult to automate.
That means opportunity for young Canadians. Becoming a tradesperson means putting down the device and working with the knowledge in your head and the skills in your hands. It means solving real problems for real people in the real world.
Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly eliminate many jobs. It will disrupt industries and challenge assumptions about how we work. None of that can be wished away. But history suggests that transformative technologies create opportunities alongside disruption. Canada has an opportunity to become an AI infrastructure powerhouse while providing a new generation of Canadians with fulfilling, well-paid careers building and maintaining the physical foundations of the digital age. We should stop asking whether AI is coming. It already has. The far more important question is whether Canada will help build its future – or merely watch others do it.
The original, full-length version of this article was recently published in C2C Journal. Gwyn Morgan, a retired business leader, has been a director of five global corporations.
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