The Ontario government is taking action to prioritize electricity for data centres that support the province’s economic interests, including those that create high-quality jobs, assist in domestic data hosting and strengthen Ontario’s position in the digital economy. As part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario, the province is embracing the growth of the data centre sector as a strategic opportunity to drive investment, innovation and job creation. This approach is grounded in Ontario’s new integrated energy plan, the province’s strategy to secure the clean, reliable and affordable power needed to support economic growth in high-demand sectors like digital technology.

This Canada-first plan will prioritize and accelerate approvals for data centres that deliver measurable benefits to both local communities and to the province’s long-term competitiveness. This will include good-paying jobs for Ontarians, securing local data storage and creating a stronger, more competitive economy. This new plan will:

• Ensure that data centres that support the province’s economic interests, including those that create high-quality-jobs, strengthen our digital economy and support domestic data housing are quickly approved for connection to the grid.
• Ensure Canadian data stays in Canada and is protected from misuse and weaker foreign privacy regimes.
• Explicitly require approval before certain data centres can connect to Ontario’s electricity grid, ending automatic approval for large energy-intensive loads so that the province can prioritize data centres that support its plan to protect Ontario.

The current load data centres requesting to be connected to Ontario’s grid represents approximately 30 per cent of Ontario’s peak demand in 2024, or the output of a nuclear plant the size of Bruce Power Nuclear Generating Station. With over 6,500 megawatts of data centres requesting to be connected to the grid, demand for electricity from the data centre industry, which includes artificial intelligence and cloud computing, is growing and expected to represent 13 per cent of new electricity demand in Ontario by 2035.

As global demand for AI, cloud computing and data processing increases, the government introduced new legislative measures in the Protect Ontario by Securing Affordable Energy for Generations Act, 2025, that will, if passed, require data centres to obtain approval before connecting to the electricity grid. Currently, electricity utilities are required to connect all data centres indiscriminately, regardless of economic impact or energy consumption needs. These changes will welcome new investment and job creation by allowing Ontario to manage electricity connection requests and prioritizing data centres that deliver real local, strategic and economic benefits that enhances Ontario’s competitiveness, energy security and long-term prosperity.