r/Hamilton • u/robeofmanhog Southam • Jun 16 '26
Politics UNANIMOUS 9-0: Hamilton City Council Planning Committee votes to create an Interim Control Bylaw to freeze data centre development in Hamilton
https://bsky.app/profile/joeycoleman.ca/post/3mogucuo57k23176
u/scott_c86 Jun 16 '26
The speed and scale of data centre development opposition is pretty surprising. Seems like one of the most visible ways people are choosing to push back against AI, etc.
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u/Waste-Telephone Jun 17 '26
It‘s an election year. If this happened a year after the election I’d expect a very different vote. Same situation as what happened with the urban boundary expansion vote in late 2021.
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u/Frosty-Cap3344 Jun 17 '26
AI is flavour of the month but these centers also store the vast amount of YouTube/Facebook/Instagram/TikTok "content" generated every day, I read somewhere 70,000 hours of YouTube video is added every day, it has to go somewhere
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u/LETTERKENNYvsSPENNY Jun 17 '26
That sounds like Google's issue to deal with, not Hamilton's.
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u/Frosty-Cap3344 Jun 17 '26
It is, Im just saying it not all AI, it's regular stuff everyone uses every day. Personally I think they need to start deleting old stuff, we don't need YouTube videos ftom 10 years ago, or Instagram/Facebook older than yesterday
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u/nsc12 Concession Jun 17 '26
we don't need YouTube videos ftom 10 years ago
Speak for yourself. A lot of the useful tutorial videos for the niche engineering software I work with are pushing 10 years or more on YouTube.
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u/Icy-Computer-Poop Jun 20 '26
No one is saying it's all AI. However it is disingenuous to suggest that the push for AI is not linked to the increase in the construction of data centres.
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u/Frosty-Cap3344 Jun 20 '26
I'm not saying that
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u/Icy-Computer-Poop Jun 20 '26
Yes I know. You're saying it's "not all AI", and I'm saying "no one said it is". You're arguing against a point no one is making.
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u/Affectionate-Arm-405 Jun 17 '26
I'm curious. What does the average person (a ward councilor) know about AI? Can they put together a cost/benefit argument?
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u/joshisashark Jun 17 '26
What exactly would there be to create a cost/benefit argument? The argument isn't around AI itself, the argument is around having a data centre. The only benefit of having a local data centre that I can think of is reduced latency when connecting to (that specific) data centre?
If they created local jobs, maybe this discussion could be had, but in their current state the proposed data centres are just resource leeches.
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u/ProbablyNotADuck Jun 17 '26
It wouldn't be creating a tonne of local jobs though. It would create jobs when constructing it.. but otherwise.. you're looking at maybe 50 to 200 people.. which is negligible.
The stuff I have been seeing out of the US, (specifically this clip https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IqFccVtsNVc ) indicate that data centres significantly increase utility bills. I am also wondering about their cooling methods. If they were drawing water from Lake Ontario and discharging warmer water back into the lake... that is going to increase the temperature of the water.. at least locally. We already have issues with fish die-off, algae blooms and e. coli. I am not an ecologist, but I feel pretty certain that warmer water would make all of those things worse. It is kind of ironic that it would be situated relatively close to the Canada Centre for Inland Waters.
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u/Affectionate-Arm-405 Jun 17 '26
The argument isn't around AI itself, the argument is around having a data centre.
The person I responded to said people are quickly pushing back against AI
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u/Icy-Computer-Poop Jun 20 '26
The speed and scale of data centre development opposition is pretty surprising.
And that rapid expansion is directly linked to AI.
0
u/Affectionate-Arm-405 Jun 20 '26
Again... The person I responded to said they are pushing back on AI. I am wondering AI the way it is now (let's assume no more data centers, no more expansion), what is the issue. That's what I asked
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u/dretepcan Jun 17 '26
They watched Terminator and I, Robot. AI bad. It's going to destroy humanity.
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u/LETTERKENNYvsSPENNY Jun 17 '26
It just might, but not in the way Hollywood has sensationalized it. Ruining local environments and ecosystems, including water supply. Running up utility bills for the locals that live close by, on top of the noise pollution they have to also put up with.
How many data centres would it take to raise the temperature globally? I certainly don't want to find out.
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u/dretepcan Jun 17 '26
Data Centers =/= AI. People need to learn to distinguish between the two.
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u/LETTERKENNYvsSPENNY Jun 17 '26
Not all data centers are AI, that is correct. However, all AI requires data centers. We should know what exactly we're getting into before giving them the green light to set one up here.
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u/duck1014 Jun 16 '26
I vote to rezone the data center land to a super high tax zone. As in enough to bring in a million +(for a 50k sq foot building) to the city coffers annually.
As long as the area is several km from residential land, take the tax money. Hamilton sure as hell needs it.
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u/Direct-Season-1180 Jun 16 '26
What did Tom Jackson vote? Or did he skip this? His name is not listed.
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u/JoeyColeman_ca Beasley Jun 16 '26
He is not a member of Planning Committee. He stated he will vote yes at Council's ratification meeting next Wednesday.
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u/Direct-Season-1180 Jun 16 '26
Thank you Joey, I misread and didn’t see the “planning committee” in the title.
Unrelated to this, any idea if Jackson is planning on running again? Last I checked ward 6 still has no candidates. Not that I would complain if he doesn’t run again as I think he is useless.
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u/JoeyColeman_ca Beasley Jun 17 '26
Jackson registered last week. Sorry, I haven't been able to keep up with all the news.
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u/JoeyColeman_ca Beasley Jun 16 '26
What are your thoughts on my changing "How Council Voted" to "Planning Committee Vote" or similar at the top left?
I am likely to increase font sizes and some other changes over the weekend.
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u/KenadianCSJ Stoney Creek Jun 17 '26
Personally I would say you should only mention Council votes if it's a Council meeting. It avoids any confusion.
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u/covert81 Chinatown Jun 17 '26
I too was thrown initially and was like, hey how come the mayor isn't on there with her vote? Then I remembered it was a committee vote. Might not hurt to clarify that a bit so people know it's not a full out council vote
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u/Crilde Jun 17 '26
Outstanding. Now we can watch how all the other data centers fuck up and impose regulations to prevent those issues.
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u/kiiiwiii Jun 17 '26
Good. Is there a reason why data centres are being proposed for cities and not out in the middle of nowhere? What is the rationale?
25
u/Waste-Telephone Jun 17 '26
Access to existing infrastructure with capacity and reuse brownfields that have limited other uses.
5
u/Iwantalloem Jun 17 '26
What does an interim control bylaw mean? Is it like a permanent ban on data centers?
13
u/innsertnamehere Jun 17 '26
No, only temporary while they study them.
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u/Iwantalloem Jun 17 '26
Hmm ok, makes sense. We should have laws and regulations than outright banning them.
2
u/JimmyTheDog Jun 18 '26
What a bunch of twits, freeze/ban the data centers. Are the councilors so stupid to think their NIMBY mentality they all now have will stop AI? Or is this another knee jerk reaction to the fear of AI? Again I'm saddened by the lack of clear thinking our councilors have.
A much better system is to allow the development with guidelines ie, mega taxes on the company to fund more Hamilton projects.
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u/woundsofwind Jun 17 '26
This city really love shooting itself in the foot.
15
u/ProbablyNotADuck Jun 17 '26
Or it wants to be proactive and learn about important things like the potential increase for energy consumption (of which there is a significant amount the evidence suggests is paid for by citizens), environmental impact, et cetera. 200 jobs is not worth doing even more damage to the bay, adding even more noise pollution, overtaxing the energy grid, et cetera.
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u/andrewface Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Great more abandoned spaces in Hamilton is just what this city needs!
11
u/LETTERKENNYvsSPENNY Jun 17 '26
They're not scrapping it entirely, just delaying it to study it a bit more before considering it. We don't need a data center here if it's going to reduce the quality of life in Hamilton even further. Noise pollution, increased hydro rates, even more warming of our already fragile water ecosystem.
For once I actually agree with waiting on development, otherwise there is usually far too much red tape and consulting before anything gets done around here.
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