O’Leary data centre faces setback in court

By Jeremy Appel

(ANNews) – Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary’s effort to block Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation’s (SLCN) request for judicial review of the water licenses intended for his planned Wonder Valley data centre in northeast Alberta has been quashed in court. 

SLCN is challenging the Alberta government’s decision to provide the Municipal District of Greenview with a license for six million cubic metres of water from the Smoky River to cool O’Leary’s proposed data centre without first consulting the First Nation. 

If completed, the Wonder Valley project will eventually require 24 million cubic metres of water for its 7.5 gigawatt facility. 

O’Leary Digital attempted to have SLCN’s challenge scrapped because the company wasn’t included in the lawsuit, which the company maintained directly pertains to it. 

On Aug. 13, Justice Parminder Johal of the Court of King’s Bench ruled in favour of SLCN, writing that O’Leary Digital’s connection to the water license is “both contingent and speculative.” 

“It’s a small win in the overall battle, which I think will come, but we’ll take it,” Chief Sheldon Sunshine of SLCN told this newspaper.

A major factor in Justice Johal’s ruling was the heavily redacted purchase and sale agreement O’Leary’s company submitted as evidence that it was directly impacted by SLCN’s application. 

Just five of the agreement’s 59 pages were made available to the court, and O’Leary Digital VP Paul Palandjian declined to provide further details, arguing that doing so would adversely impact its commercial interests. 

The pages that were made available to the court require the Municipal District of Greenview to make all “commercially reasonable efforts” to obtain a water license and transfer it to O’Leary Digital. 

Johal ruled that this clause means that the company isn’t directly impacted by a challenge to the water license. 

Because the agreement’s timelines are redacted, it can’t be determined that its clauses are yet in effect, he added. 

“On the evidence provided, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that [O’Leary Digital’s] contractual entitlement is contingent,” wrote the judge. 

The Greenview Industrial Gateway, which is where the Wonder Valley data centre is slated to be built, is former provincial Crown land that was transferred to the municipality in 2021 for industrial development over SLCN’s objections. 

Chief Sunshine said that this land transfer was “an avenue for them to sidestep their duty to consult.”

“We’ve always been open to having a conversation about this project, and we really haven’t got much information on it,” added Sunshine. 

As early as 2023, the Municipal District of Greenview applied for a permit for the full 24 million cubic metres of water, which the provincial government told them would require consultation with SLCN. 

In February 2024, the municipality received a preliminary certificate for that amount of water. According to a timeline of events in Justice Johal’s ruling, SLCN was “neither notified nor consulted.” 

While the certificate for the full amount made its way through the regulatory process, the municipality applied for a license for six million cubic metres in November which the provincial government determined wouldn’t require consultation with SLCN. 

On Dec. 3, 2024, less than a week before the province, municipality and O’Leary Digital announced the proposed project, Palandjian wrote a letter to Chief Sunshine requesting a meeting. 

They eventually met on Jan. 28, 2025. According to Sunshine, Palandjian told him that at this point, there was “no project,” and promised more information by the end of February, which Sunshine never received. 

In April, Sunshine met with provincial officials, who echoed Palandjian’s claim that the data centre is a “non-project.”

Palandjian said in an August correspondence with Sunshine that O’Leary Digital hasn’t made a decision to proceed with the project, therefore “no approvals, licences, or permits have been applied for by or issued to O’Leary at this time.”

In October, SLCN submitted its application for judicial review of the municipality’s water license and the provincial government’s determination that it didn’t require consultation. 

It wasn’t until O’Leary Digital filed its application to strike SLCN’s court application in December 2025 that the company disclosed it was intended as the beneficiary of the municipality’s water license. 

Chief Sunshine emphasized that he’s not against industrial development, but that these projects must be proposed transparently, with all the necessary information provided in advance so that SLCN leadership can “use our own judgment to agree with them or not.” 

“We are open and progressive, and as long as the development is responsible, then we support those things,” he said. 

O’Leary Digital couldn’t be reached for comment by Alberta Native News. 

In a statement to Canada’s National Observer, Palandjian said the company was “disappointed with the decision and strongly disagrees with the continuation of this proceeding.”

From the project’s inception, he added, the company “has worked in good faith to engage and consult with Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation and other Indigenous and local communities.”

“We remain committed to meaningful consultation, responsible project development and regulatory oversight, while working to support positive long-term outcomes for the communities in and around the project,” wrote Palandjian. 

Jeremy Appel is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.