Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath has called a special City Council education and training meeting to learn more about artificial intelligence data centres. The meeting comes 24 hours before Council votes on final ratification of an Interim Control Bylaw banning the construction and expansion of any data centres in Hamilton for up to one-year to begin.
Three presentations are scheduled: Dr. Martin Karsten of the University of Waterloo on data centre technology generally, Dr. Michael Schull, CEO of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC), on national and international data centre infrastructure, and representatives from McMaster University on AI research applications and a proposed data centre at 44 Frid St.
The meeting will be livestreamed on YouTube and the agenda package, with presentation slides, is available here.
I will be live posting throughout the meeting on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/joeycoleman.ca
Background
The issue gained public attention in the weeks following the May 7, 2026, publication of Slate Asset Management’s severance application for a data centre campus on a 76-hectare section of the former Stelco lands, known as Steelport. The proposal was intended to host federally funded data centres operated by DRAC.
The application drew a record number of public submissions. By the time Hamilton’s Committee of Adjustment heard the matter on June 4, more than 1,200 letters had been filed, the largest number of letters ever submitted on a single agenda item. The June 4 hearing drew the largest crowd in the Committee of Adjustment’s history. Following six hours of delegations, the committee unanimously denied the severance; Slate has appealed the decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
On June 16, Council’s Planning Committee unanimously supported a motion from Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann directing staff to prepare an interim control bylaw applicable city-wide. Council ratified that direction on June 24, voting 15-1 to proceed with the bylaw and voting 14-2 against an amendment that would have exempted McMaster’s proposed academic research data centre at 44 Frid St.
The enacting bylaw to implement the June 16 decision is on the July 15 Council meeting agenda.
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Published: July 14, 2026
Last updated: July 14, 2026
Author: Joey Coleman
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