Saint John touted as 'hidden gem' for artificial intelligence

When a U.S. company made its data centre pitch to some concerned Saint John residents late last year, he called the city an untapped “gold mine” for artificial intelligence projects.

The heads of Saint John Industrial Parks and the Fibre Centre in Moncton used similar terms, describing the city as a “hidden gem” and “hidden secret” for AI.

Businessman and former premier Frank McKenna agrees and credits the “historical relationship” between the provincial government and NBTel before the Saint John-based telephone company merged into Bell Aliant in 1999.

The company's legacy, according to McKenna, includes a province rich in unused fibre-optic cable, called dark fibre. Dark fibre can be used to transmit data at high speeds, so it's a resource and an opportunity for the city and New Brunswick as a whole.

Some sources, such as a provincial government report from 2012, praise NBTel for its telecommunication milestones.

The report called NBTel the first Canadian telephone company to provide internet services and the first granted permission by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to provide television services.

“NBTel was extraordinarily progressive in terms of wiring New Brunswick and of making sure that we had ample amounts of dark fibre available for whatever use came along,” McKenna said in an interview about the data centre proposed for Saint John.

He said the result of the company’s foresight is that New Brunswick now has an “extraordinary resource” for creating data centres.

In October, Nathan Ough, CEO of Texas-based VoltaGrid, announced that his company and a partner, Canada-based Beacon AI Centers. would be developing a data centre in the expanded Spruce Lake Industrial Park.

Residents of nearby Lorneville have opposed both this proposal and the approved expansion that came before it.

One of the main questions at a November information session held by VoltaGrid: Why build this in Lorneville?

Ough, who is from Saint John, cited his own personal connection to the city.

He also said the city and New Brunswick's history and resources make it valuable for projects like one.

This "gem" or "secret" isn't quite so hidden, with even federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon briefly mentioning Saint John's large amount of dark fibre during a visit to the city this week.