A joint venture of Clark Builders and PCL Construction has broken ground on a C$13bn, 1GW data centre in Sturgeon County, Alberta, the company’s first in Canada.

Meta also pledged to spend C$60m on local projects including roads and water infrastructure.

At peak construction, 3,000 workers will be onsite building the facility at an industrial park. 300 people will work there when it’s operating.

Meta said it would generate $250m a year for Albertans through royalties, taxes, levies and fees.

It will also become “water positive” in 2030, Meta claimed, meaning it will restore more water to local watersheds than it consumes.

In Alberta, Meta says it is conserving 200 acres of grasslands, trees and wetlands within the North Saskatchewan River watershed. The data centre has been designed to employ a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling, meaning there is no operational water use in the cooling system.

Residents living near Meta data centres in Georgia have previously complained about disruption to the water supply.

In the first quarter of 2026, at least 75 data centre projects together worth approximately $130bn were disrupted by local opposition, according to Data Centre Watch.

The Sturgeon Data Centre will be powered through a combination of grid-connected electricity and on-site natural gas. The Alberta Electric System Operator estimated that 1,200MW could be allocated for data centres without compromising the grid.

Danielle Smith, Alberta’s premier, said: “Artificial intelligence is transforming the global economy, and Alberta is making sure we lead rather than follow. We created the right conditions to attract world-leading investments while protecting the interests of Albertans.”