AI minister meets with mining, energy companies on environment impacts — not green groups

Apr. 6, 2026

AI Minister Evan Solomon has met with energy and mining companies about the environmental impacts of AI infrastructure, but no environmental organizations, according to documents tabled in the House of Commons.

NDP MP Leah Gazan asked the federal government about the number of AI meetings held with various groups, including environmental organizations, and the government's response shows that environmental impacts of AI infrastructure are not on its radar, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, told Canada’s National Observer.

That’s after the government heard from many Canadians and civil society groups that the environment should be a consideration. The AI ministry’s “what we heard” report after the 30-day consultation noted “environmental sustainability is a major concern for many, with calls for strategies to mitigate energy consumption and water usage in data centres.”

The government’s response to Gazan’s questions, tabled March 11, listed six meetings about environmental, energy or sustainability concerns. None were with environmental groups, and three meetings on environmental topics were held just with companies: Teck, Enbridge and Kanata Clean Power.

“It's probably just these companies being like, ‘How do we get through whatever environmental approvals are necessary to build infrastructure?’” Mertins-Kirkwood said, adding that the meeting descriptions are so vague it's impossible to discern exactly what was discussed.

He said the lack of engagement with environmental groups is disappointing and short-sighted but not surprising. 

“I don't think it's really a consideration at all,” Mertins-Kirkwood said.

Solomon’s office disagrees.

His deputy director of communications, Sofia Ouslis, said the minister and his team “actively collaborates with Environment and Climate Change Canada, along with various stakeholders, to ensure that development across the country prioritizes long-term environmental protection.”

In her emailed statement and responses to follow-up questions, Ouslis did not name any specific environmental organizations or representatives. 

The government’s response to Gazan’s question included an Oct. 31 meeting that was described as being about “data centres and water usage” but didn’t name any participants, and another was a discussion about the impact of the Clean Electricity Regulations in Alberta and its implications for AI data centres.

Ouslis also noted Solomon met in September with 11 labour representatives (including representatives from the Canadian Labour Congress, CUPE and PIPSC) about the opportunities and impacts of AI on jobs, upskilling and the future workforce. Those labour meetings were not reflected in the government’s official response to Gazan’s queries.

At least one environmental organization is struggling to get a meeting with the minister.

"After Minister Solomon was announced as the Minister responsible for AI and Data Centres, we reached out to his office to discuss the environmental factors associated with AI. We did not receive a response,” Alex Walker, Environmental Defence’s climate finance program manager, told Canada’s National Observer in an emailed statement. (The Sierra Club said it is focused on public awareness campaigns about AI’s impacts and disinformation. A spokesperson at the David Suzuki Foundation said they do not have someone working on AI or engaging with the minister's office.)

Pembina Institute confirmed that it met with Solomon's office on AI data centres in the context of the Alberta-Ottawa MOU on April 2, after the list was published. 

"Things are evolving quickly and the Pembina Institute is just beginning our work in this space," Tim Weis said. "We hope to find ways to do more, given its potential impacts.”

During the federal government’s 30-day AI consultation period in October, Environmental Defence submitted input, reached out to Solomon’s office again and, once again, did not receive a response, Walker said.

To the government, AI infrastructure projects like data centres may seem like any other industrial project or warehouse; if you can get the right regulatory approvals, there aren’t particular environmental concerns beyond that, Mertins-Kirkwood said.

But the scale of environmental impacts — particularly power usage and to a certain extent, water — is relevant, he said.

“When we talk about building data centres at the scale that both government and industry would like to see, then the environmental impacts become very significant quite quickly,” Mertins-Kirkwood said.

He argues the environmental concerns are actually more pressing than labour concerns.

“There's much more urgency, because what we're talking about right now is building massive amounts of infrastructure,” he said. “The decisions we make this year around a lot of that stuff locks in that infrastructure for potentially decades.”

Alberta is pushing gas generation to power data centres, which would add more planet-warming greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. 

“There's still hope that in a year from now, we could regulate AI applications in education, healthcare, for example. But once we've just built thousands of megawatts worth of data centres and hooked them up to new gas-fired generators, we've locked in that infrastructure,” Mertins-Kirkwood said.

“Neglecting to engage on environmental issues has some real costs from a climate perspective.” 

Part of the problem is that most environmental, climate, civil society and labour organizations don’t have a lot of AI expertise and, therefore, have limited capacity to engage on these issues in a substantial way, he said.

“We just don't know enough about AI and tech issues to have a real mature and cohesive response to the moment. … It's just not sophisticated, it's not organized in the same way and it's not independent of other institutions,” he said. He, like many AI experts and academics, believes the government needs to hold more robust public consultations.

The ministry’s approach emphasizes “sustainable progress” and safeguarding Canada’s natural heritage, Ouslis’ statement said.

Based on Mertins-Kirkwood’s interpretation of opinion polling, people want answers to questions like: What is AI for? What problems does it solve? What safeguards can we put in place? How do we mitigate the negatives associated with AI?

“That thoughtfulness is, I think, what people want right now, and that's not what we're getting when the narrative is that this is a race and we have to win it or we lose it, which, I think is just a very dangerous framing,” Mertins-Kirkwood said.

A recent KPMG study found that while 50 per cent of Canadians surveyed approve of or accept the use of AI, nearly 80 per cent are concerned about possible negative outcomes and 75 per cent believe AI regulation is necessary.

[Top photo: Federal Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon addresses members of the media in the House of Commons foyer. File photo by: Natasha Bulowski / Canada's National Observer]