Bell Canada Files to Develop Major AI Data Center Campus in Saskatchewan
February 11, 2026
Bell Canada, the national telecommunications giant, has taken a significant step in its nationwide artificial intelligence infrastructure expansion by filing plans to develop a large-scale data center campus in Saskatchewan. This move signals a strategic push by a major carrier to build sovereign AI compute capacity in a region poised to become a new hub for digital infrastructure, diversifying Canada's data center landscape beyond its traditional major urban clusters. According to documents filed with the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, Bell is seeking to rezone approximately 160 acres of agricultural land outside Regina to light industrial use for a proposed "data and research center." The development, first reported by CBC, is described in the filing as enabling "the development of an AI data center campus that will serve as critical digital infrastructure for research, provincial AI enablement, and federal/protected industries." The facilities aim to provide "secure, made-in-Canada computing capacity" for universities, healthcare, public-sector services, and businesses, keeping sensitive data and innovation within the country. The campus is planned to be built in multiple phases, ultimately comprising several buildings each with a capacity of 50 megawatts (MW), totaling around 46,575 square meters (501,345 square feet) of space. The first building, spanning 8,500 square meters (91,025 square feet), could see construction begin as early as this year. Critical power infrastructure will be supported by an on-site substation from the Saskatchewan Power Authority. A unique aspect of the proposal includes a future commercial and industrial development on about 14.4 hectares (35.35 acres), which may involve a research partnership with the University of Regina to develop greenhouses that reclaim waste heat from the data centers. This Saskatchewan filing aligns with Bell's ambitious AI infrastructure strategy announced last year, which included plans for a 500MW AI data center supercluster in British Columbia and partnerships for GPU clusters in Manitoba and Ontario. The project also represents a notable expansion for Saskatchewan's data center market, which has historically been limited to local providers like SaskTel. It follows other recently proposed large-scale developments in Moose Jaw and Saskatoon, indicating growing investor interest in the province's potential for digital infrastructure.
Source: datacenterdynamics
