Data centres do not employ many people. This is not an opinion. It is not speculation. It is a hard, industry-verified fact that has been documented by CBRE, the Uptime Institute, and every community that has ever hosted a hyperscale facility. Here is the number that matters for Wheatland County: a facility the size of Goldfinch — roughly 3.5 million square feet — will employ somewhere between 50 and 150 permanent people.
Let that sink in for a moment. A building complex larger than anything in southern Alberta, consuming enough electricity to power a small city, and it will bring us the equivalent of one new coffee shop worth of permanent jobs.
Sturgeon County: The $60 Million Per Job Club
Look south to Sturgeon County, just outside Edmonton. Meta is building a massive data centre campus there with a capital investment of $18 billion. That is not a typo. Eighteen. Billion. Dollars.
For that eye-watering sum, Sturgeon County is expecting roughly 300 permanent jobs. Do the arithmetic: $18,000,000,000 divided by 300. That is $60 million in capital investment for every single permanent job created.
Ask yourself — would any other industry in Alberta get a pass on that kind of math?
The Industry Data Is Clear
This is not a unique situation. CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm, tracks data centre employment across North America. The Uptime Institute, the industry’s own standards body, publishes the same reality: hyperscale data centres employ between 50 and 200 permanent staff regardless of whether the facility is 100,000 square feet or 3.5 million square feet.
The technology is designed to run with minimal human intervention. Servers are managed remotely. Security is automated. Cooling systems run on software. The whole point of hyperscale is to eliminate the need for people on site.
The Construction Job Mirage
Proponents will tell you about the construction jobs. Estimates for Goldfinch suggest 1,500 to 2,000 construction jobs over a 2-to-3-year build period.
But here is the part they leave out: those jobs end when construction ends. Every single one of them. There is no second phase. The 1,500 to 2,000 workers will arrive, build the facility, and move on to the next project — likely in another province or country.
Wheatland County gets the dust and the traffic and the strain on local services, then gets left with a handful of permanent positions.
Reno Tells the Same Story
Just look at Reno, Nevada. In 2022, Vantage Data Centers completed a massive expansion there. During construction, the project employed roughly 4,000 workers. Once operational? 73 permanent employees. That is a ratio of 55 construction jobs for every single permanent job.
Reno handed over prime industrial land, water access, and significant tax concessions. In return: 73 jobs in a city of nearly 300,000 people. The math simply does not add up.
What 576 Acres Currently Produces
The Goldfinch site occupies 576 acres of farmland in Wheatland County. Today, that land supports multiple family farms — grain operations, cattle grazing, and the small businesses that service them. Those farms generate dozens of direct agricultural jobs and support dozens more in the local supply chain. They do it with minimal infrastructure strain, no water conflicts, and no demands on the electrical grid.
What the data centre offers instead: at best 150 permanent jobs, immense power and water demands, and a building that contributes nothing to local food production or economic resilience.
What the Experts Are Saying
NDP critic Nathan Ip put it plainly during legislative debate: “The number of jobs generated once a data centre is operating is relatively small.”
This is not an anti-development position. It is a statement of fact from an elected official who took the time to review the data. When both industry analysts and opposition critics agree on the numbers, it is time to listen.
Learn More and Get Involved
We are not opposed to development in Wheatland County. We are opposed to bad deals that sell out our farmland, strain our infrastructure, and leave us with next to nothing in return.
Read the full research and fact-check our sources at goldfinchfacts.ca/the-facts. Then join the conversation at goldfinchfacts.ca/get-involved. Your voice matters in this fight.