Kevin O’Leary Is Playing Alberta for a $70 Billion Fool ⇥ nationalobserver.com

Emily Rae Pasiuk, CBC News:

Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary says he is planning to bankroll and build what he says will be the world’s largest artificial intelligence data centre.

The proposal — named Wonder Valley — is slated to be built in the District of Greenview, near Grande Prairie, Alta.

If you believe this pitch for a seventy billion dollar A.I. data centre campus, you are a mark. A sucker. You have been duped. Bamboozled. Hoodwinked.

Our premier is very excited.

Max Fawcett, the National Observer:

The website in question features a video that has to be seen to be believed — and even then, only as a punchline. The imagined bucolic landscape of rolling hills, gentle streams and friendly wildlife feels like a Disney-fied version of northern California rather than northern Alberta. The campus itself is straight out of Silicon Valley.

The narration is even more hilariously unrealistic, if that’s even possible. “There’s a valley,” we’re told, “where technology and nature will come together in perfect harmony. Where the future will pulse at every turn. Bursting with nature and wildlife, nurturing the present as it embraces the future. The valley where the brightest minds unite, where electrons, machines and data come together in an algorithmic dance.”

If moneyed knuckleheads want to try building this thing, that should be between them and the people of the Municipal District of Greenview — but leave the rest of us out of this. The province should not subsidize or contribute to it, but they are obviously enamoured by the new natural gas power plants to be constructed (emphasis mine):

“The GIG’s ideal cold-weather climate, a highly skilled labor force, Alberta’s pro-business policies and attractive tax regime make the GIG the perfect site for this project. We want to deliver transformative economic impact and the lowest possible carbon emissions afforded to us by the quality of gas in the area, our efficient design and the potential to add Geothermal power as well. Together, these factors create a blueprint for sustainability and success that can be recognized worldwide. This is the Greenview Model” said Mr. O’Leary.

Transparently dishonest.