Vancouver council delays Mount Pleasant AI data-centre decision until after election

Vancouver City Council has unanimously withdrawn a rezoning application for a proposed Telus-Westbank artificial-intelligence data centre in Mount Pleasant from a public hearing that had been set for July 23. The July 21 vote reverses council’s July 14 referral of the application for 111 East 5th Ave. and 2060 Quebec St. to a hearing; it does not approve or reject the project.

The application returns to City staff for active review. Council cited strong public interest and concerns it would not have enough time to hear all registered speakers while it also handles other rezoning files and policies. Before the item was removed from the agenda, the M3 proposal had drawn nearly 600 written submissions and close to 200 registered speakers.

Further public consultation has been directed, but staff said no engagement will take place from August through October during the election campaign. Consultation is expected to resume in November and December, and the application could return to council for a public-hearing referral no earlier than the first quarter of 2027. The move allows elected officials seeking re-election to discuss the proposal, though they are still expected to keep an open mind before any hearing. Vancouver’s civic election is Oct. 17, 2026.

Westbank proposes converting the six-storey M3 office building at its Main Alley tech campus into Telus’s first new Vancouver AI data centre. The planned 77,000-square-foot facility would occupy the office floors and two underground parking levels, with a ground-floor restaurant proposed. An initial opening is planned for late 2026, followed by expansion through 2028.

The M3 conversion is one of two Vancouver data-centre proposals announced by Westbank and Telus in May. A larger proposed facility at 150 West Georgia St. has not yet had an application filed; Telus says recovered heat from that project could be connected to the Creative Energy steam plant. Opponents have raised environmental, energy-use, noise and employment concerns. Telus says its Vancouver projects and a third project in Kamloops are part of the federal Enabling Large-Scale Sovereign AI Data Centres initiative and could generate about $9 billion in British Columbia economic activity, more than 1,000 construction jobs and hundreds of long-term positions.