Lorneville residents say they’re still waiting for answers on proposed data centre

Tempers flared Thursday night at an overflowing open house between a West St. John community and proponents behind a hyperscale data center project planned for the area. About 200 people packed the Lorneville Community Center, with more spilling outside and watching live online. And they all had a clear message. I think it demonstrated the exact thing we wanted to demonstrate, is that there is no social license for this project. There is no amount of community benefits that will justify The pollution and harm to our health and well-being. And they don't care, and they're not willing to answer questions. The public session was exactly one year from when the community last faced companies Boulder Grid and Beacon AI centers over the 390-megawatt facility proposed for a nearby industrial park. A year later, the community says questions around the project's impacts remain unanswered, like the amount of water it will use. The session was a requirement of the province's environmental impact assessment process and the Energy and Utilities Board. We have tried to, told a year ago that we would get answers to our questions and be transparent. Neither has come to fruition. Residents accused the company of coming back to them empty-handed. Any questions we can answer, we will come back to you. Knowing that we asked these questions a year ago, why did you come here this evening without clear answers for the community? Because this feels like an empty gesture, and it feels like a checkbox, and it feels like a big kind of a token situation, and not something that's done in good faith. Residents want to see the project denied, but the director of the province's EIA branch suggested this is not a realistic outcome. It's the ultimate goal. Some of the people here is to stop the project and, you know, the EIA process is not intended to do that. That's not what it's about. No, we're good. No, we're good. So there is an ability to, at the end of that process, to make a decision. to deny a project as I explained but because it's really intended to be a project planning tool most projects get through the process with many conditions to mitigate those impacts. More the environment. Hardy said she will review the results of the meeting and decide whether more are needed. She said additional studies and information on the review will be posted soon.