CHARBONNEAU – Few long-term jobs from AI data centers in Kamloops

THERE ARE OBVIOUS advantages for the builders of AI data centres to locate in Kamloops.  But they don’t create that many long-term jobs.

Job creation is a routine part of the pitch from data centre operators when presenting their plans to municipalities. There may be some economic benefits but data centres can occupy large swaths of land and draw substantial quantities of electricity and water, all of which could be used for other purposes.

Compared to other North American locations, Kamloops is relatively cool. That’s critical because the centers generate massive amounts of heat.

And Kamloops has access to green hydroelectric power.

Not like Alberta where electricity is generated by natural gas and the province’s Electric System Operator is restricting the amount of electricity for data centres.

Kamloops is located in a geographically stable area with no fault lines running through the city. The likelihood of natural disasters is low.

We are well connected. A major optical fiber line runs through the area, reducing latency. That’s critical for fast responses.

As well, Canadian-owned data centres are a good idea.

Data sovereignty is critically important for data storage because it ensures that Canadian laws and privacy govern the storage, processing, and access to data.

When Canadian data is stored at data centers owned by U.S. companies, the American government can access that data and even restrict it through their CLOUD Act. This creates legal uncertainty and potential privacy violations, especially for sensitive government, healthcare, financial, or Indigenous data.

With an unstable and hostile American government now in place, data sovereignty is more important than ever.

Also, America is running out of capacity to build data centers. The demand for new data centers in the U.S. far exceeds current power needed, especially in and around major U.S. cities.

The power usage for data centers is expected to double by 2030. Locations with green, dependable, electricity have an advantage.

The increased demand for AI processing puts Canada in a good position to market the excess processing capacity to AI giants like Microsoft and Google.

While site location is a good reason to build in Kamloops, job creation is mostly in the construction of the centers.

Bell, as part of its AI Fabric initiative, plans to build one data center in Kamloops this year followed by another in 2026 at TRU and one more in 2027.

As a further incentive to job creation, Bell proposes that the data centres at TRU be designed to host AI training and inference: the process where AI models make predictions or conclusions based on new, unseen data.

Details of the training for TRU students have not been released but an immediate benefit will be use of the heat generated by the data center to warm buildings on campus.

Bell also suggests cooperation with TRU’s trades departments but most student training is in the construction of wood framed buildings, not the concrete bunkers of data centers.

It all sounds wonderful but after the data centers are up, only a few administrators and maintenance workers will be employed. If a data module needs replacing, an AI generated robocall will be placed to a low-skilled worker to come and change the unit.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.