REGINA — Saskatchewan’s Opposition NDP is calling for a moratorium on construction of hyperscale artificial intelligence data centres in the province.

Leader Carla Beck says there should be a pause until a process for assessing these projects and their effects is implemented and robust public consultation occurs.

The call comes a day after Premier Scott Moe and Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Bell Canada intends to quadruple the size of its planned data centre outside Regina.

The expansion would boost capacity of the data centre to 1.2 gigawatts from 300 megawatts.

Beck says Moe made the announcement unilaterally with no public consultation.

She says residents are concerned that their electricity bills will increase to help run the facilities and they’re questioning the Saskatchewan Party government’s hasty approval of Bell’s project.

The government was not immediately available for comment.

Moe has said Saskatchewan has enough power in its grid to operate the Bell data centre and that more would be available as the province moves toward nuclear technology.

The Canadian Press