Bell says Regina-area AI data centre is on track for first halls in early 2027

Bell Canada told local leaders Thursday that its artificial-intelligence data-centre campus outside Regina is advancing fast enough to bring the first two buildings online in the first half of 2027, with group president John Watson branding the construction pace “extraordinary.”

At a site tour with Saskatchewan officials, Watson said framing is progressing across four data halls in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood and that customer commitments require the first two halls to be fitted out and ready on that timeline. More than 500 workers have been on the 65-hectare site at peak periods. SaskPower is supplying 300 megawatts for the first phase, with 200 MW of transmission capacity targeted by the end of 2026 and the remaining 100 MW by the end of 2027, while SaskEnergy work on a new pipeline and meter station continues.

The campus sits inside a larger Bell AI Fabric partnership with the province. A September 14 announcement outlined a non-binding memorandum of understanding that could add up to 900 MW of partner-developed natural-gas generation, creating a path toward 1.2 gigawatts and capital spending that Bell and Saskatchewan officials have said could exceed $50-billion at full buildout, with a Bell AI Fabric head-office presence in the province. Watson said details on expansion footprint, plant timing and partners are not locked; he noted the largest anchor tenants so far are U.S. firms while Bell continues to court Canadian governments and financial institutions for sovereign workloads.

For Canada’s compute race, the Regina project is a rare large, Canadian-owned AI campus with a public construction clock — and a live policy test of how far provincial “bring your own power” rules and data-sovereignty branding can scale before emissions, grid and customer-demand questions catch up.

Sources: 980 CJME; Bell Canada via NewsWire; Government of Saskatchewan.