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  Oh now they've gone and done it. The AER allowed a sour gas pipeline to be built and no one knew about the actual setback distance. "Justice Jo'Anne Strekaf said the case raises serious questions about Alberta’s regulatory regime and how it enforces landowner rights." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-pipeline-chemtrade-fort-saskatchewan-9.7371015 #ableg #cdnpoli #cdnlaw

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  New story coming out today on the Meta data centre in Sturgeon County. More than 120 residents are challenging the development permit. They are up against lawyers and the county's development authority. There's a very narrow window here for everyday people to shake up the system that is set up to keep citizens sidelined while big tech receives the red carpet treatment. Find out what happened Tuesday in the hearing. I'll link to the article here once it's publi...

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  It has barely been two months since the AUC decided the Olds data centre was not in the public interest due largely to local residents making their voices heard. The province has had two years to design its data centre strategy and there are still no guardrails. It's almost as though they don't intend to provide them. But be careful what you wish for. What just happened with Edmonton and Calgary's land use planning could very easily become a province-wide method of push...

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  I just posted another interview with an AI protester in Calgary. See Jenna’s awesome zine, and find links to my previous interviews (with lots of photos) in this latest post. https://jodymacpherson.substack.com/p/no-one-is-immune-to-the-damage-protesters?r=b0efu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true #ableg #AIDataCentres #protest #zines

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  I've got some breaking news to report! Just went up on the website. I've also got a story posted from earlier in the day. But first, check out the two new court cases filed by Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation against the Wonder Valley project. https://www.theenergymix.com/breaking-oleary-data-centre-megaproject-faces-two-new-applications-for-judicial-reviews/ #ableg #cdnpoli #WonderValleyAlberta #Indigenous

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  Democracy Watch did an analysis of the Alberta referendum and here are 12 ways co-founder Duff Conacher said Monday's vote is undemocratic and unfair. 🚨 too many questions 🚨 questions drafted by partisans 🚨 misleading claims the vote is binding 🚨 courts should've reviewed legality first 🚨 public money spent to sway voters 🚨 political parties not covered by 3rd party rules 🚨 fundraising rules favour wealthy interests 🚨 one person, one vote rule violated by donation rules 🚨 disclo...

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  More than 125 people opposing Meta's AI data centre's development permit went before the Alberta Land and Property Rights Tribunal last week. Sturgeon County, the municipal county just outside Edmonton welcomed the project without any public input or hearing. In fact, the whole thing was so secret that Meta's name could not even be used until after the permit was approved under the code name "Project Frost." The county's lawyer argued it had...

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  I'm not feeling celebratory today. I was asked to write something about the referendum and I said no because I'm feeling terrible about the other nine questions. I don't trust myself to publish when I'm feeling this low. I think Ximena addresses it accurately in her post. Well worth reading. https://iwouldprefernotto.substack.com/p/a-racist-alberta-within-a-united?r=b0efu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web #ableg #cdnpoli #abpoli

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  Orlagh O'Kelly's Substack post about the referendum is 🔥 . https://orlaghokelly.substack.com/p/the-ucps-xenophobic-plebiscite?r=b0efu&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer #ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli

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  I’m reupping this post as a reminder to those talking about the cost of the referendum and the future costs that will likely be incurred through legal battles (which Alberta will inevitably lose). Democracy Watch’s Duff Conacher proposes solutions here, including much needed changes to the laws around referendums. The flaws and loopholes he’s identified need to be fixed. https://jodymacpherson.substack.com/p/analysis-a-dozen-more-reasons-to?r=b0efu&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&...

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  🚨 10 red flags on red tape reduction plans for environmental protection laws in Alberta. And data centres may not be mentioned, but they are talking a lot about "emerging technologies." When the government uses the term "modernize," you know something is up. The public has until Oct. 30 to submit their comments and with the help of the Alberta Wilderness Association, I've included links to the discussion paper. The engagement up to this point has b...

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  ❗Federal subsidies to the tune of $500 million for AI ❗ The federal Liberal government has added another $500 million to support the expansion of AI adoption in businesses across the Prairie provinces. It's part of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy bringing total federal funding for the initiative to $700 million. If that isn't taxpayer dollars subsidizing job losses, copyright theft, and further expansion of energy and water intensive AI data centres...I don&#...

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  It's a crapocalypse, Calgary. https://youtu.be/YBYTmavBu1I?si=lOl4PiM2SR66wJV9 #peakpoop

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  Guy who was paid $1.7 million thinks it was a "terrific" deal. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bearspaw-panel-chair-compensation-9.7400334 #yyc #peakpoop

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  RE: https://mstdn.ca/@JEmphatically/117226240726379350 With less than 30 days to go before the Alberta referendum, and after the deadline to request a special ballot had passed...Mom's seniors residence has figured out that their mobile polling station is probably going to be a nightmare on Oct. 19. So, they delivered a single sheet of paper with the list of questions to each resident encouraging them to read them ahead of time and decide how they're going to vote. If you've read...

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  My mom lives in a seniors' home. Now that she's received her special ballot package, she has been telling other seniors about how many questions there are, etc. They didn't believe her so she brought out her 10 ballots to show them. The reaction ranged from astonishment, to anger to bewilderment. They had previously questioned her as to why she even needed a special ballot since they usually have polling station right at her residence building. Try to picture 100 seniors with vari...

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  Just heard the government's referendum ads on the radio. I do believe the taxpayers are paying to support the separatists with this campaign. There's no mention of voting to stay, Ottawa is repeatedly accused of wrongdoing and the government is telling people to vote for a stronger (er, sovereign?) Alberta. The message seems clear. This was probably the plan all along. If they can't outright tell people to vote to leave, they'll make sure the other 9 questions lead you to th...

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  New Wonder Valley story coming out later this evening. Just finished editing and waiting for production! Listening to MD of Greenview council meeting turns up the darnedest things sometimes.

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  Data centre protest tomorrow (Sept. 20) at 10 a.m. at the Sturgeon County Centre in Morinville. https://albertatransparencyproject.ca/public-notice

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  With the public clamouring to have a say in data centre projects in their communities. The federal government thought it WOULD BE FINE if they didn’t ask for public input on its “responsible data centre principles.” So they got together with a bunch of mayors and a bunch of big tech companies this past summer to come up with principles meant to reassure the public. I can’t tell you how many times I heard AI and data centre proponents talking about the need to build public trust at the AI even...

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  Greenview Reeve says council doesn’t have time to “spoonfeed” information to residents. The Greenview media relations team did not acknowledge or reply to my questions. It seems like there may be a transparency problem. But Paul Palandjian, CEO of O’Leary Digital says his company is committed to Canada’s new data centre principles at the same time as they’re taking new legal action to block a court case brought by Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. And then there’s the 59-page purchase agreement tha...

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  Well, this is a blockbuster of a document leak. So, the goal is more revenue for government coffers and too bad that Albertans will have to empty their wallets. Huh. Great work by The Narwhal bringing this to light! https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-ai-data-centre-takeover-cabinet-doc/ #ableg #cdnpoli #AIdatacentres

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  We're burning up. I've spent so many summers in the Okanagan, such a beautiful, peaceful place. Fire has always been a part of the story, but not at the scale, frequency and ferocity we're seeing now. Politicians in Canada have decided to double oil and gas production using data centres, approve a major thermal coal mine expansion and declare a bitumen pipeline in the national interest. Smith and Carney are the reckless partnership we all feared, working together to ensure Big Oil...

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  I bought a small pop-up tent that lights up from the inside in different colours and my 5-year-old grandson loves it so much that he's been begging his mom and dad to come over to my place. We've been "camping" now three afternoons, with fake campfire (real marshmallows have been consumed though), a raucous thunder storm soundtrack via Soundcloud (camera-flash-created lightning) and kid-friendly* ghost stories. *don't want to give him nightmares! We also added Northern L...

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  The Alberta NDP wants to hear where you stand on AI data centres. They are in St. Albert in Sturgeon County tonight (where Meta’s data centre is going) on a “listening tour” 6 p.m. at Red Willow Place, 7 Tache Street. I had questions about the tour…I’d like to say I received answers but I did not. And they backed out of an interview with me until after they finish their consultations. https://www.albertandpcaucus.ca/ai-data-centre-consultations #ableg #cdnpoli #AIDataCentres

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  Only about half of the data centre decision-makers surveyed said they were holding public forums or investing in local initiatives, while recent national polling shows that only 33% of developers are addressing grid reliability, and only 29% are responding to water consumption concerns. The report authors suggest “a disconnect between engagement efforts and community priorities.” You’d think data centre developers would pay attention to communities…but, no. I guess at least $64 billion, 18 st...

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  My 81-year-old Mom, who's a widow and has no current photo ID was rejected today when we tried to get her a photo ID card. She's been living in Alberta since 1978 and has no current passport. She had her birth certificate but because she changed her last name when she got married in 1964, they could not issue her an ID card without her marriage certificate. We did not know where she may have stashed her marriage certificate since she moved into a senior's residence three years ago...

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  “Hot people hate AI” - Photos from the Anti-AI protest in Calgary at the end of June. https://open.substack.com/pub/jodymacpherson/p/protest-featured-pokemon-llms-explained #protest #streetphotography #photography #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #ableg #cdnpoli #artificialIntelligence

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  A guy in Florida posts on Threads about the decline in visits to Disney World wondering why...he's inundated with Canadians (and others around the world) commenting about boycotting the state and the U.S. He ignores every one of those replies and likes only the ones that suggest it has to do with weather or prices or anything but Trump, ICE or MAGA. This captures the mindset of some Americans, I guess. They don't want to accept that perceptions of the country have fallen so low with t...

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  Danielle Smith says there’s no way Alberta’s oil and gas will be part of the trade negotiations with the US. Despite Carney’s statements that ties to the US are “weaknesses” that must be corrected, Smith is focused on “strengthening our trading partnership with the US, selling more energy in all directions.” “We are prepared to sell them more energy. We're prepared to sell them more natural gas. We're prepared to sell them critical minerals and make sure that we continue to sell them th...