The National Post reports in its Thursday edition that the AI-driven data centre boom was a factor in the Liberal government's decision to scrap its target of a net-zero electricity grid by 2035, a senior government official said. The Post's Rahim Mohamed quotes the official, speaking on background, saying: "We ran a few different forecasts of how much electricity these centres will use. Any way you slice it, it's a substantial amount." The official said that Ottawa projects internally that demand for electricity could double by 2050, driven by the growth of electricity-gobbling data centres and shift among motorists to electric vehicles, as well as continued population growth. Canada has several advantages that position it to be a major player in the space, notably a cool climate, plenty of unused land and abundant cheap electricity. Brookfield chairman Mark Carney said last month that Canada's booming data centres could be a key source of leverage in bilateral relations with an increasingly hostile United States. "We are the best solution to a huge constraint [the U.S. is] about to hit on AI and data centres," Mr. Carney said in Ottawa. "They're running out of the space and certainly the clean energy for that."