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Premier says B.C. must be ‘intentional’ about AI and data centre growth
Premier David Eby said artificial intelligence is key to B.C.’s strategy to diversify its economy, but stronger safeguards are needed around how the technology is used.
“British Columbia is such an interesting jurisdiction when it comes to AI. It’s both in the extremely positive end of AI and the extremely negative end,” said Eby at Web Summit Vancouver 2026.
The province has a strong and growing AI sector with more than 600 AI companies, 75 per cent of which are revenue-positive, according to Eby. AI is also being paired with industries such as quantum computing to create real-world applications and economic impact, he added.
Sectors such as health care could benefit from AI by helping integrate records across hospitals, family doctors and other parts of the health care system, according to the premier. He added that AI could also help anonymize health care data to improve care delivery and inform government decisions, he added.
“These are huge opportunities for us,” Eby said. He added he’s a huge optimist about AI.
However, he said the Tumbler Ridge shooting tragedy raised alarms about AI use because of the role it allegedly played in influencing the shooter’s decision-making, as well as OpenAI’s decision not to involve law enforcement.
“So here in British Columbia, we have seen acutely the challenges around AI and the human fallibility around the decisions of how these tools are used and what the safeguards are,” he said.
Eby also said new data centres Telus Corp. (TSX:T) plans to build in Vancouver, announced Monday, May 11, will further strengthen B.C.’s AI infrastructure and Canada’s sovereign AI capacity.
However, he said the province will continue to cap the amount of electricity allocated to data centres.
“The demand is so huge and because we have very low rates, we would be overwhelmed if there was no policy,” said Eby, adding that B.C. has long maintained a “next in line” policy for some industries.
“What we have to do now is be a little bit more intentional about where our power is going.”
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