The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that Alberta made a big pitch in 2024 to supply power for AI data centres with its abundant fossil fuels. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says, however, it failed to convince BCE, which is setting up one of the first major systems in the country. "I don't think it makes sense when we have such strong access to hydroelectricity in many provinces," said Dan Rink, president of Bell AI Fabric, a new artificial intelligence data-centre network announced Wednesday. The first Bell AI Fabric facilities are planned in British Columbia, in areas like Kamloops and Merritt that have more spare capacity on the province's hydroelectric grid than the densely populated Vancouver region. And there is "high potential" for more facilities in provinces like Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario, BCE chief executive officer Mirko Bibic said alongside Mr. Rink at a conference in Vancouver on Wednesday. "On either side of Alberta, you have very green hydroelectricity that has a low cost of production," so it is less attractive "to then be burning natural gas and creating CO2, and you have a higher-cost baseload when you're doing that, versus a grid that's ready to give you the power," Mr. Rink said.