B.C. Premier tells crowd about AI optimism despite energy, safety concerns

VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier David Eby says he’s still optimistic about artificial intelligence, having seen both the “opportunity and the threat” the technology presents.

Eby told a crowd at Vancouver’s Web Summit that B.C. has experienced the extremes of AI, referencing the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge where he says the shooter’s use of ChatGPT to plan the shooting resulted in the deaths of eight victims.

He says the province has seen the challenges and “human fallibility” of the technology, but he remains a “huge optimist” about AI.

Eby, speaking a day after Telus and federal AI Minister Evan Solomon announced a cluster of three AI data centres in B.C., says that BC Hydro as a public utility gives the province a “huge advantage” because of its low energy costs and clean output.

He says demand for power from the industry could be overwhelming in B.C. because of its low rates, but there’s a need to work with the federal government on sovereign AI capacity, which is of national importance.

Eby says companies are shopping around for support from governments, and federal and provincial funding “helps them to be able to expand and keeps them located here in British Columbia.”

Telus says the two data centres that are planned for Vancouver and one in Kamloops will draw 150 megawatts of power by 2032.

That is equivalent to about 12-to-14 per cent of the output of the Site C dam.

In January, the B.C. government launched a competitive process for companies seeking to establish certain power-hungry tech projects, with 300 megawatts set aside for AI and 100 megawatts for data centres every two years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2026

The Canadian Press