{"id":1441,"date":"2026-09-19T05:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/19\/mp-calls-on-new-brunswick-to-reject-proposed-ai-data-centre-in-open-letter-to-premier\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T05:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:02:39","slug":"mp-calls-on-new-brunswick-to-reject-proposed-ai-data-centre-in-open-letter-to-premier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/19\/mp-calls-on-new-brunswick-to-reject-proposed-ai-data-centre-in-open-letter-to-premier\/","title":{"rendered":"MP calls on New Brunswick to reject proposed AI data centre in open letter to premier"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MP for New Brunswick Southwest John Williamson rises during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, April 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld – The Canadian Press <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FREDERICTON \u2014 A New Brunswick member of Parliament is calling on the provincial government to reject a proposed artificial intelligence data centre in Saint John, warning that it could overwhelm the power grid. <\/p>\n

Conservative MP John Williamson says the proposed AI centre will trigger electricity rate hikes for nearby residents. <\/p>\n

Williamson says the public utility NB Power lacks the necessary capacity to handle the facility’s demand for 200 megawatts from the grid. <\/p>\n

He laid out his opposition to Beacon Data Centers’ project in a letter to Liberal Premier Susan Holt. <\/p>\n

The New Brunswick Southwest MP also criticized Holt for highlighting the data centre project at a major Toronto investment summit earlier this week, even though it hasn’t received provincial government approval. <\/p>\n

The New Brunswick government says any new data centre must pay for the costs it creates and cannot lead to higher electricity rates. <\/p>\n

Beacon AI says its project requires 390 megawatts of energy and that it could produce up to 190 megawatts on site. <\/p>\n

Williamson said the company wasn’t interested in generating all of its own power. <\/p>\n

“I met with them and I raised this and they balked,” he told The Canadian Press in an interview Friday, referencing a meeting he had with the company a several months ago. <\/p>\n

That’s why, he said, he wants the province “playing hardball” with companies that want to build data centres so that ratepayers are shielded from major price hikes. <\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2026. <\/p>\n

Eli Ridder, The Canadian Press <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MP for New Brunswick Southwest John Williamson rises during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, April 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld – The Canadian Press FREDERICTON \u2014 A New Brunswick member of Parliament is calling on the provincial government to reject a proposed artificial intelligence data centre in Saint John, warning that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us-stocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btbitcoin.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}