Quinte West Council ultimately decided at their Wednesday meeting, to defer a deferral surrounding a proposed data centre at the former Saputo plant in Trenton.
Last week at the Quinte West Planning Advisory Committee meeting, the team was tasked with making a decision about amending the zoning by-law for 7 Riverside Drive. The former cheese factory site is north of Highway 401 in Trenton. A request was brought forward that Quinte West re-zone the site to allow for a data centre. Quinte West Council Chambers and nearby rooms were full of residents watching the meeting. Those who spoke up to the committee were all against the re-zoning and the data centre. There was a wide variety of concerns raised – from noise levels, to the impact of water, and wildlife.
TrueNorth Sustainable Infrastructure has revealed that their proposed data centre on the site, would be an 8 mega-watt facility that would use a closed-loop cooling system, therefore would not rely on local water. The $320 million investment would create an estimated 14 new jobs.
The committee unanimously agreed to defer the re-zoning decision. There was a general consensus at the meeting, that the committee felt that the new Council coming in after the October election should make the decision around data centres.
During the first Quinte West Council meeting since August 12th, Councillor Egerton Boyce brought forward a Notice of Motion asking for an Interim Control By-Law to be approved. The Interim Control By-law would temporarily place a pause on any decisions around data centres and any new digital infrastructure facilities for up to a year. His argument was that staff need to have time to do research, and the move would not be a permanent ban on data centres.
Councillor Boyce further explained his view to his colleagues around the horseshoe.
“The Interim by-law will freeze any data centres from being created, while instructing staff to complete a comprehensive review, and create a planning policy to address these centres. It will have staff do research into possible suitable locations, size restrictions, types of centres, amount of centres, possible compensation for municipality [to create] of parks playgrounds etc. This process legally can only last for up to a year. Most importantly it provides opportunity for the public to comment throughout the process. Once completed the planning policy will give incoming council the necessary information into whether or not to accept these centres. Note that the Ontario government has not even approved their planning playbook, as they allowed public input to occur until September 12th. Council needs to review its policy. This is not something that should be rushed or rammed through,” added Boyce.
Quinte West Council then hit a speed bump in the meeting, as Councillor David O’Neil, who sits on the Planning Advisory Committee, made a motion on the floor for Council to defer Councillor Boyces’ Notice of Motion.
“I agree with Councillor Boyce. We should not rush the decision, and I feel I don’t have the mandate to make this decision. Future Council should make this decision on data centres.. but why are you rushing this motion? You haven’t given the business community a chance to do a delegation to say why you shouldn’t do this,
added Councillor O’Neil.
It was decided that the timeline for the businesses community to look into the issue, would be until the next Council meeting.
After some confusions as to what was being asked of Council to finally vote on, staff confirmed that the motion by Councillor O’Neil would mean that staff would continue to process applications that already meet zoning requirements. Staff noted one other applications is being looked at. The move does not stop staff from approving a site plan for being approved as a data centre, if it is currently being processed.
Councillor O’Neil’s motion passed with a 6-5 vote.
In Favour: Councillors Armstrong, Kotsovos, Kuntze, O’Neil, Roseblade and Mayor Harrison. Against: Councillors Alyea, Boyce, Card, Reid and Stedall.
The final Council meeting of this term will be Wednesday October 7th.
