After a 90-minute discussion on Monday evening, city council members in Sault Ste. Marie rejected a proposal to halt new data center projects in the northern Ontario community. The debate centered around contentious artificial intelligence facilities following a local petition opposing a cybersecurity monitoring and training center, including a data center, approved for the west end by the city council in December 2025. Spearheaded by cybersecurity company Protexxa and Missanabie Cree First Nation, the initiative aims to utilize AI to detect and address cyber issues for various organizations and governments.
During the meeting, Ward 3 Councillor Angela Caputo suggested an interim control bylaw, or moratorium, to pause any new data center proposals in Sault Ste. Marie until additional policies and protocols were established. However, Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and several councillors expressed reservations about certain aspects of Caputo’s proposal, leading to its eventual withdrawal. Instead, a new motion is anticipated to be presented at the upcoming meeting on August 31, tasking city staff with crafting a specific municipal framework for data centers in the city, including provisions for public input.
The potential outcome of this upcoming vote is unlikely to affect the Protexxa data center project already greenlit for Yates Avenue in the city-owned industrial park, pending the completion of the property sale. Shoemaker emphasized during the debate the distinction between data centers, cautioning against treating all facilities uniformly. While city staff highlighted the environmental impact of large-scale data centers, Protexxa assured a modest energy consumption of five megawatts for its Sault operation.
The city’s Planning Director, Peter Tonazzo, noted that the Sault already accommodates office and institutional uses with server rooms comparable in size or smaller than Protexxa’s proposal. City CAO Tom Vair reiterated that all proposed data centers, regardless of scale, would need council approval for rezoning to ensure appropriateness. Shoemaker argued against a moratorium on future data center proposals, asserting that existing processes are in place to assess and reject impractical applications. He underscored the thorough review and consultation conducted before approving the Protexxa site in December, suggesting room for process enhancements without undermining past decisions.