Proposed data centre is no supersized AI facility, says N.W.T. company

KatloTech Communications looking for $12M in federal funding for fibre line, data centre near Hay River

An Indigenous-owned company in the N.W.T. is proposing to building a new fibre optic line and a small-scale data centre on Kátł’odeeche First Nation (KFN) land near Hay River.

Yellowknife-based KatloTech Communications says the project will increase telecommunications competition in the territory and increase northern digital sovereignty.

Lyle Fabian, the company’s CEO, says it will also provide redundancy when other telecommunications services are down.

“Our critical infrastructure will keep everybody connected,” he said.

Fabian, a member of the KFN, says telecommunications in the territory are now largely dominated by Northwestel, which operates the main fibre optic line in the territory.

He wants to offer residents more choices for cellular, television and other services with another fibre optic line, which would run 329 kilometres underground, from High Level, Alta., to Hay River.

The line would also connect to the company’s proposed IceFox data centre, which would also allow local businesses, Indigenous governments and customers to store their data on KatloTech’s local servers. The data centre will also run some artificial intelligence services.

The proposal has already seen some opposition.

Former KFN chief April Martel recently took to social media to raise concerns about the data centre’s potential impact on the environment and wildlife. CBC News contacted Martel but did not hear back before publication.

Fabian says his proposed facility differs significantly from supersized AI data centres, such as Meta’s planned facility in Alberta, which face criticism over high energy demand, rising electricity costs, heavy water consumption and increased noise pollution.

He says the IceFox facility would consist of modular units the size of shipping containers. It would be hydro-powered and air-cooled, he added.

“Ours is not a hyperscaler. It’s a traditional data centre that requires no water, just air cooling,” he said, adding that such small-scale server rooms already exist across the country, including in Yellowknife.

The project still has some significant hurdles to overcome.

Fabian says installing the fibre line and powering the data centre relies on two major factors: securing $12 million from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor), and connecting the data centre to the proposed Taltson hydro expansion project for power.

It would also need to go through an environmental assessment.

Building northern digital sovereignty

Rob McMahon is an associate professor in media and technology studies at the University of Alberta who has worked with Fabian on other projects. He says he has no stake in KatloTech’s current project.

McMahon says as Canada works to protect its digital sovereignty, govern its own data without relying on foreign corporations or external legal jurisdictions, smaller communities are building local infrastructure to fill connectivity gaps.

“Where I think it [data sovereignty] could be really powerful is when it’s things like Indigenous forms of data, maybe administrative records, health records, et cetera … stored and transmitted on [networks] controlled by those nations themselves,” he said.

By keeping data stored locally or regionally, communities can ensure they retain direct control over their digital future, he said.

McMahon also says another fibre line like the one KatloTech is proposing provides backup if Northwestel’s existing fibre line is damaged.

He says that sort of infrastructure redundancy is especially important somewhere like the N.W.T., “where you have a lot of wildfires and flooding and all these horrible impacts of climate change.”

Related stories from around the North :

Canada: Why starlink is being called a ‘game-changer- in many N.W.T. communities, CBC News