Last week a LOT of Hamiltonians showed up at City Hall to voice their concerns regarding both a specific proposed data centre project, but data centres and AI in general. While we have seen similar lengths and sizes of crowd for meetings recently like various LRT meetings, the marathon of virtual delegations during the pandemic to stop sprawl, or the Ancaster Fairgrounds Greenbelt meeting - many activists and City Hall watchers agreed that a crowd like that not only outside but inside City Hall has not been seen in well over a decade.

As many delegates recognized during their remarks, the vote by the Committee of Adjustment as confirmed by the proponent Slate did not hinder the project going forward - but the community response was loud and clear to all. What are the next steps? 

As announced before the committee of adjustment meeting last week, Councillor Nann (Ward 3) and Councillor Kroetsch (Ward 2) are bringing forward a motion to the City Council Planning Committee on Tuesday June 16th. The motion will direct staff to prepare an Interim Control By-law, which is basically a tool Council and the City can use to place a moratorium on data centre development until a municipal framework is in place. You can find the motion by clicking here and going to the June 16th Planning Committee meeting agenda. The motion is item 10.1 on the agenda.

If passed at Planning Committee, the Interim Control By-law will be discussed at the next City Council meeting on June 24 for approval (note: citizens cannot delegate in person for City Council meetings but written correspondence is still accepted).

If you would like to delegate to Planning Committee on this motion and/or you have concerns and ideas of what the municipal framework ought to include, you can sign up to delegate for June 16th Planning Committee meeting. The meeting begins at 9:30am and delegates speak at the start of the meeting in order of registration.

• To register to delegate in person or virtually you must register before noon on Monday June 15th.
• Written comments must also be submitted before noon on Monday June 15th.
• Pre-recorded video delegations must be submitted by noon on Friday June 12th.

To register to delegate or submit comments, CLICK HERE.

IMPORTANT NOTE: At the Planning Committee meeting, there is also a staff proposal to extend the due date, again, for the max heat by-law that Council unanimously approved in December of 2023. This will make it a nearly 3 year delay on this Council direction (read more here from our allies at Hamilton ACORN). If you plan to delegate on the data centre motion, please consider taking a few seconds to mention that this further delay matters to you too.

One last note: Even though Doug Ford and the provincial government have gone on an extended summer break which they claim means they will not interfere in municipal elections, the provincial government, or even the federal government, could choose to step in and overrule the will of City Council should the motion pass on the 16th through Planning Committee and then through City Council on the 24th. This is an issue that our local MPPs and MPs need to hear about!