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Toronto City Councillors are asking for more scrutiny of a Scarborough data centre expansion, but didn’t approve a pause on the project despite community efforts.

At a City Council meeting on July 30, Scarborough Southwest Councillor Parthi Kandavel introduced a motion asking for more care and diligence when it comes to the proposed expansion of an existing data centre.

The data centre in question is located at 3650 Danforth Ave. The site currently has only eight megawatts of electrical capacity (or how much electric power it can use and draw from the grid) and the proposal would increase that number to 56 — pushing it into a large-scale centre. 

Kandavel said that more than 100 residents attended a public meeting he held earlier last month, with concerns on the implications of the data centre expansion. They raised concerns about electricity and water usage, noise and overall benefit to the community, like jobs. 

Council received 7,722 communications from people who asked the City of Toronto to halt the construction of the AI data centre expansion.

The motion was originally scheduled to take place on July 29, while a rally in favour of a data centre moratorium was taking place outside Toronto City Council. It got pushed to the next day because of the number of comments they received from members of the public.

During the meeting, Kandavel asked the City to look into what AI data centre expansions could mean for local communities. 

• He also suggested asking the Ontario Government to provide a province-wide framework for large-scale AI data centres by the end of the first quarter of 2027. 
• Alejandra Bravo, city councillor for Ward 9, added a request for the Ontario Minister of Energy and Mines to consult with the City when developing its major digital infrastructure and AI data centre framework. 
• Coun. Chris Moise also added a request for a comprehensive review of city planning policies and zoning regulations — so that AI data centres like this can’t move forward without Council approval. 

Council approved the motion with the amendments, but didn’t approve a moratorium — which is a pause or halt to a project.

Other cities are going through similar issues at the moment. The City of Burlington voted down a similar AI data centre moratorium motion on July 21 while the City of Mississauga voted to approve a one year moratorium on July 29.