HAGERSVILLE—It appears that details posted online for what could have been Canada’s largest data centre – envisioned on Hagersville lands – were premature and inaccurate.
The Press was sent a webpage posted by SPUR Innovation, a tech company based out of Waterloo. SPUR currently has four data centres in Waterloo, Fergus, Kitchener, and Cambridge, with plans to expand in Woolwich, Cambridge, and Mirabel, Quebec.
Last week, the webpage also detailed SPUR’s plans to build a data centre on the same grounds as Hagersville’s battery energy storage park operated by Boralex. It dubbed the project a “350-acre AI-ready hyperscale data centre development” and listed Six Nations Group as an Indigenous partner.
At that size, it would be the largest data centre in Canada, roughly the size of 265 football fields or slightly larger than Canada’s Wonderland.
SPUR touted the area’s convenient features, such as being on an “established Hydro One interconnection corridor.”
Called an “eco data campus,” the site was envisioned with a 6-8 hectare greenhouse, “heated entirely by recovered waste heat from the compute floor,” that would grow tomatoes, peppers, and leafy greens year-round, “feeding the local community,” according to the website.
The project would begin with 100 MW of capacity before expanding to 300 MW and eventually to 1.2 GW.
Further, the website touted the speed with which the project could take shape.
“Conventional Canadian data centres of this scale take 5-8 years from land acquisition to first commercial operation,” read the website. “Hagersville can compress that materially – because the most expensive and time-consuming pieces are already in the ground.”
The Press contacted Haldimand County, Boralex, and Six Nations Group for comment, and found no such project was in the works.
County spokesperson Erin Haase replied, “At this time, staff have not had any direct contact with the proponent or received any formal information related to the proposed development. Without that information, the County is unable to comment on specifics, but should a formal application be submitted, it would be reviewed through the County’s usual planning and development approval processes, including technical review, public engagement, and Council consideration as needed.”
Public Relations Officer Katie Montour with Six Nations Group confirmed they are not involved with this project.
“We recently learned that we were listed on this website and are working to remedy this as we have never been involved in this project,” said Montour.
Likewise, Public and Government Affairs Advisor Shelby Dockendorff of Boralex said, “Boralex has no affiliation with SPUR Innovation Centre and we were surprised to see the Hagersville Battery Energy Storage Park referenced on SPUR’s webpage.”
Sharif Virani, Chief of Staff for SPUR Data Centres, responded to an inquiry from The Press.
“I want to be straightforward, because I think it saves us both time: there is no Hagersville data centre project,” said Virani.
SPUR’s webpage outlining the planned site has since been removed.
“What appeared on our website was an early internal concept that was published in error when we launched our new site last month. We caught it and took the page down on Wednesday of last week,” said Virani. “I’m very sorry for the confusion it caused while it was up.”
He continued, “To be clear on the substance: we have no site, ownership, agreements, approvals, or roadmap for a facility in Hagersville.”
At this time, SPUR remains focused on its existing projects.
“SPUR is currently looking at retrofitting existing facilities across Ontario into data centres that build build domestic, or ‘sovereign,’ AI capacity, while keeping environmental impact low,” said Virani. “Our near-term focus is the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge region, specifically retrofitting the former underutilized BlackBerry/RIM campus into roughly a 20 MW data centre aimed at turning compute capacity into regional economic growth.”
It remains unclear whether any aspects of the concept could inform future SPUR projects.
