Alberta and the Federal Government News Upate
Recently, the Province of Alberta and the Federal Government announced a Memorandum of Understanding between them that lays out a new energy agreement. The MOU made specific reference to AI, Alberta’s electricity grid, and data centres.
Here is the specific text of the MOU in relation to AI, electricity and data centres.
The Objectives
The Governments of Canada and Alberta are focused on achieving the following objectives and have developed the following clear actions towards this goal:
- Increasing electrical generation for consumer and industrial use on Alberta’s electricity grid, including meeting the needs of AI data centres, while simultaneously reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for the electricity sector by 2050.
- Creating electricity and energy policies that address consumer affordability, electricity grid stability, economic competitiveness and long-term competitive certainty, that attract Canadian and foreign sources of private sector capital investment.
- Reducing layers of regulatory overlap and simplifying regulatory systems to ensure a maximum 2-year timeframe for permitting and approvals with the goal of shorter project approval timelines where feasible.
- Providing meaningful opportunity for Indigenous rightsholders to participate in consultation processes and economic opportunities through Indigenous ownership, partnerships and benefits.
The Projects
- Construction of thousands of megawatts of AI computing power, with a large portion dedicated to sovereign cloud for Canada and its allies.
- Construction of large transmission interties with British Columbia and Saskatchewan to strengthen the ability of the western power markets to supply low carbon power to oil, LNG, critical minerals, agricultural, data centres and CCUS industries in support of their sustainability goals.
The Commitments
Alberta commits to:
- On or before July 1, 2026, implement a policy framework to incentivize large investments in data centre development, including incentives for Canadian sovereign computing.
- On or before January 1, 2027, collaborate with Canada to develop a nuclear generation strategy to build and operate competitive nuclear power generation that can serve the Alberta and inter-connected markets by 2050.
- Collaborate with Canada to significantly increase the inter-tie transfer capability between the western provinces (with consideration to the northern regions) to build the low carbon generation and transmission grid that supports the growth of low intensity heavy oil, LNG, critical minerals, agriculture, data centres and CCUS industries for export growth and domestic use.
Canada commits to:
- Acknowledge Alberta’s approach to regulating heavy electricity generation emitters through Alberta’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) program for Alberta to provide long-term certainty and time needed by industry and innovators to develop the needed CCUS, direct air capture, nuclear infrastructure and other emissions technologies necessary to achieving a net-zero power grid by 2050.
- Suspend immediately the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) in Alberta pending a new carbon pricing agreement, which includes the electricity sector, administered through Alberta’s TIER program to be negotiated by the parties on or before April 1, 2026. Upon completion of the new carbon pricing agreement and factoring all other measures to the satisfaction of both parties, Canada will place the CER in Alberta in abeyance.
- Work collaboratively with Alberta to design policy supports that enable deployment of nuclear technology, CCUS and energy storage to enable decarbonization of the electricity system, while ensuring its reliability and affordability.
- As outlined in Budget 2025, propose amendments to the Competition Act to remove some of the “greenwashing” provisions that are creating investment uncertainty.
Implementation Committee
Canada and Alberta will appoint an Implementation Committee responsible for delivering the following outcomes:
- Acquiring feedback from the federal government for Alberta’s policy framework for AI data centres which is to be finalized by Alberta on or before July 1, 2026.
- Collaborating with Alberta on the design of Alberta’s nuclear power generation strategy which is to be finalized by Alberta on or before January 1, 2027.