Ontario premier Doug Ford has announced the Data Center Playbook, a framework to attract data center investment in the region and ensure data sovereignty for Canada.

In a meeting in Guelph, Ontario, Ford and other ministers said the framework would ensure Canadian data remains in Canada and deliver “significant and meaningful benefits to local communities.”

Among the benefits outlined in the framework are new apprenticeship opportunities for reskilling mid-career workers, new community amenities, critical infrastructure developments, and indirect economic impacts such as “increased demand for accommodations.”

The framework says this will be achieved by data centers investing “significantly” in host communities, driving infrastructure developments, job creation, future economic growth, and training opportunities.

Nothing currently compels data centers to engage with these guidelines; however, the framework cites the Protect Ontario by Securing Affordable Energy for Generations Act, which gives the government final decision on which large-load projects are permitted to connect to the province’s electricity grid, as context.

The framework also introduces “priority assessment pillars,” which set out how the government will assess economic development and strategic considerations related to data centers. The first pillar aims to advance economic development in Ontario; the second targets the protection of data security and digital sovereignty; and the third focuses on investing in communities and earning public confidence.

The government says the playbook is an “early initiative” that will be a key enabler of the region’s AI strategy to leverage economic opportunities AI adoption will bring, such as “$122 billion in economic growth by 2035 and creating more than 17,000 new jobs every year.”

Ontario will only offer non-financial support to attract data center investments, according to the announcement, leveraging its existing focus on a clean and reliable electricity system, ample land, a cool climate, and a skilled workforce.

Under the framework, data centers will also pay the cost of their impact on the electricity system to ensure citizens’ electricity bills don’t increase. This includes measures to encourage data centers to build their own power generation and create a new rate class for large new data centers, targeting facilities with more than 1MW of capacity.

The government is seeking public input on the development of the playbook through the Environmental Registry of Ontario and the Ontario Regulatory Registry for a 30-day public comment period beginning August 13.

“Ontario has a choice: we can build the economy of the future and ensure Canadians’ data remains in Canada, or we can get left behind and risk Canadians’ data being sent to the US and elsewhere,” said Premier Doug Ford. “Through our new Data Center Playbook, our government is choosing to build the economy of the future to generate billions in economic growth and create thousands of new jobs, while ensuring new data centers play by the right rules and pay the full cost of electricity. Any data center investment will need to invest significantly in local communities and pay more for electricity so no energy costs are passed on to hardworking families.”