REGINA, Sask. — Protesters rallied outside the RM of Sherwood council building on the afternoon of Sept. 23, voicing fears and concerns over Bell’s proposed AI data centre expansion.
The protest began outdoors, with protesters marching around the building and using noise-making devices in an effort to disrupt council meeting proceedings. Protesters were later allowed into the RM of Sherwood council meeting to express their concerns before council members eventually packed up and left. Leading up to council's departure, protesters could be heard chanting "people over profit," along with a number of other remarks.
One protester, retired family physician Dr. Sally Mahood, is not opposed to the use of AI in medicine, but she said massive data centres like this are not needed.
"This is not a humanitarian use of AI. This is about profit seeking," says Mahood.
Another protester, Taran Ulrich, says that "it's frustrating that this was not a democratic process and that's what resonates most with people that we're seeing."
One protester, Wendy Wiest, was disappointed that the NDP was not present at the protest.
"We need somebody who is standing behind us and for us, and I know that [the NDP] are the opposition but, just because you're an opposition, don't act like an opposition. If you can act like a leader when you're an opposition — when it comes to the next election — guess who's going to be leading this province," says Wiest.
At a press conference earlier in the day on Sept. 23, NDP Shadow Minister for Tech, Innovation & AI Brittney Senger called on the Saskatchewan government to reveal the locations of the new data centres — 30 or more — that the Saskatchewan Party applied for.
At the press conference, Senger said, "Let's look at how this project began. There was no transparency, and people had very valid concerns, and from day one, it seemed like there was a lot of stuff going on behind closed doors and people were asking questions that they weren't getting answers to."
