The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Aug. 11, edition that a majority of Canadians oppose government incentives for artificial intelligence data centre construction, according to a new poll. The Globe's Joe Castaldo writes that a Nanos Research survey found that 38 per cent of respondents oppose financial incentives for data-centre development and 26 per cent somewhat oppose them. Six per cent were in favour of incentives, while another 22 per cent somewhat supported the idea. Some regions in Canada are experiencing a surge in data-centre proposals to meet the demand for AI models. However, opposition is rising, with protests in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Locals are concerned about the energy consumption, environmental impacts and the actual economic benefits of these projects. Ottawa is promoting AI data-centre development with a 2024 spending package of $700-million for building and expanding these facilities, along with up to $1-billion for new public-sector computing infrastructure. Ottawa has a program to support large-scale data centres (requiring at least 100 megawatts of electricity), offering varied forms of assistance, including financing or agreements to purchase compute capacity.