Bell and Telus are among several high-profile companies that have signed onto a framework, announced by Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Thursday, that establishes baseline responsibilities for data centre projects.
The framework has five core expectations for data centres: they must create lasting local benefits, must not shift electricity costs to Canadians, must minimize water use and environmental impacts, must be transparent about local impacts, and must bring strategic value to Canada.
“These national principles are intended to complement existing provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous regulatory processes by setting a nationally recognized baseline that communities can use when considering major projects,” a press release said. “Together, these principles will support responsible investment, give communities greater clarity and help Canada build the digital infrastructure it needs for the future.
“Canada currently relies significantly on infrastructure and services based outside the country for the compute, cloud and data storage that power AI,” the release added, noting data centres support the health care system, financial services, scientific research and secure government systems. “Building more capacity here at home will give Canada greater resilience and choice, while helping Canadian researchers, innovators and businesses build, deploy and scale.”
Earlier this year, the federal government, through ISED, put out a call for proposals to build large-scale sovereign AI data centres to make the country more — albeit not entirely, considering foreign data centre components — self-sufficient. The government’s initiative to support the building of sovereign, high-performance AI compute infrastructure in Canada was established in Budget 2025, which included a proposed investment of $925.6 million over five years, starting in 2025-26. Bell and Telus have answered the call to offer Canadian institutions digital and cloud services on domestic soil.
Other signatories to the framework include Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and AI companies OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere.
Photo of the Mirko Bibic and Victor Dodig, the heads of Bell and Telus, respectively
