Canada bets on AI: Bell invests $1.7 billion in a new data centre in Saskatchewan

Canada’s economy has received a genuinely positive technology story. On March 16, 2026, BCE Inc., the parent company of Bell Canada, announced a $1.7 billion investment to build a new 300-megawatt artificial intelligence data centre in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, near Regina, Saskatchewan. According to Bell and Reuters, once completed, it will be Canada’s largest dedicated AI data centre, built specifically for artificial intelligence workloads.

For the country, this is not just another construction project, but an important signal: Canada intends not to stand on the sidelines of the global AI race, but to build its own digital infrastructure. The project is expected to strengthen the country’s domestic computing capacity, help keep data storage and processing inside Canada, and support so-called sovereign workloads — meaning computing and data that remain under Canadian jurisdiction. Saskatchewan officials have described the project as a step toward turning the province into one of Canada’s leaders in sovereign AI infrastructure.

There is also a very practical economic impact. Bell expects the project to generate up to $12 billion in economic value for the province. During construction, it is expected to support at least 800 jobs, and once the facility becomes operational, it will create up to 80 permanent positions directly at the data centre. In addition, Bell estimates a further impact of about 750 related jobs in adjacent sectors and local communities.

What is especially important is that this is not only about technology, but also about regional development. The project involves the Government of Saskatchewan, SaskPower, SaskTel, George Gordon First Nation, as well as Saskatchewan Polytechnic and the University of Regina. Bell has stated that it will place emphasis on local and Indigenous suppliers, and the facility is expected to be launched in phases, beginning in the first half of 2027. For Canada, this is an example of how major investments in AI can simultaneously create jobs, strengthen regions, and shape the economy of the future.