Simon Enoch
@simonenoch.bsky.social
Senior Researcher - Saskatchewan - Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Interested in populism, propaganda and political economy. So stupendous, living in this tube.
Get them on the record before the next data centre comes to your town
Amanda Hu@amandalhu.bsky.social · 3d agoA group advocating against data centres has launched trackers for several municipalities on councillors’ support for data centres. Here’s the one for Calgary City Council #yyc #yyccc calgary.stopthedatacentre.ca/election-tra...
He better bring us back a treat. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Sask. Premier Moe went to D.C. for a funeral. He talked trade, too | CBC News
The Saskatchewan NDP has called for Moe to pay back any taxpayer funds used on the trip. The provincial government says Moe was travelling as premier and conducted official Saskatchewan business.
cbc.ca
if you want to see normally sclerotic do-nothing local governments suddenly snap into action, do some quietly beneficial tactical urbanism type thing like this and watch how quickly they race to remove it
wishda@wishda.bsky.social · 5d agoThe DSA in Wilmingotn, N.C. has created a "crisis" by putting benches at city bus stops, after literal decades of the city promising and failing to do so.
“This case was a whole cast of characters with creativity that surprised even career prosecutors.” www.agweb.com/news/busines...
agweb.com
“After identifying dozens of safety issues with trains that carry potash between Canada and the U.S., the American railroad regulator rejected Canadian Pacific request to replace human inspectors with automated ones.” : theijf.org/article/cpkc...
CPKC’s automated replacement for human inspectors missed dozens of defects: U.S. agency
Transport Canada already allows the automated checks deemed not ‘consistent with railroad safety’ in U.S.
theijf.org
I had an idea years ago of creating a (paid) labour reporting internship to help students gain experience doing labour reporting Emma was our first labour intern and I was so proud we could later hire her as full-time labour reporter Please follow @emmaarkell.bsky.social and support her journalism
Alberta’s Minister of Technology and Innovation, Nate Glubish, recently stated that he views “data centers as digital pipelines and digital refineries for us to help get the value from our natural gas to global markets.” www.desmog.com/2026/07/23/a...
‘Absurdly High’: Alberta Considering Almost 21 GW of Gas-Powered Data Centres
Expert warns that would require 200 billion litres of water and explode Canada’s emissions.
desmog.com
This is a well-produced segment. I encourage you to watch so you can hear the noise for yourself. The professor of environmental health science that they interviewed called it an “unprecedented new noise source.”
Neighbors say noise from Michigan data center is 24/7 and upending their lives
One Michigan community has been experiencing the reality of a data center next door for a couple of years now, and they say the sound has changed their lives.
wxyz.com
“Saskatchewan ($631), Nova Scotia ($620), New Brunswick ($558), and P.E.I. ($513) lead the country in private per person long-term care spending—significantly higher than the Canadian average of $386 per person.” www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
Public versus private health care spending in Canada | CCPA
Canada already sees a higher portion of private health care spending than a lot of countries, and it needs to change
policyalternatives.ca
Squished in the middle of this story was this heartbreaking paragraph. Unconscionable.
Brian Lyman@brianlyman.bsky.social · last wk.A lot of what-the-hell moments in this story, but building a data center in a floodplain in Louisiana is inviting the wrath of Poseidon.
The list of what’s not covered by these new tariffs is also important: energy, potash, critical minerals, fish and anything already covered by the section 232 tariffs are exempt. If Canada was to seriously retaliate, this list would be a good start. www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
Canada getting the “art of the deal” treatment with new U.S. tariffs | CCPA
Understanding the latest Trump trade war play
policyalternatives.ca
“Plexiglass cases, like boarded up stores, send a powerful message of a society under siege, even when the real message should be not to trust everything we hear. Locked up goods is great propaganda for more cops, more crackdowns.” dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to...
We used to be able to buy things in this country
Locking up toothpaste was a warning sign that our executive class was crazy
dannykatch.substack.com
Today, @cfnu.bsky.social released a paper by me & Nate Little. It was shared with the premiers in Charlottetown. The provinces face a health care funding cliff. The feds need to ensure stable CHT of at least 5% annual growth to protect heath care access across the country. @policyalternatives.ca
Canada's Nurses@cfnu.bsky.social · 2w agoLooming changes to the Canada Health Transfer will result in billions of dollars less in health care funding. With an avg. growth rate of 3.8% annually, the cumulative CHT will be $51.8B less over 10 yrs than if the escalator remained at 5% annual growth. Read more: nursesunions.ca/research/the...
“Private insurers are actively involved in the policy-making process of the UCP government’s two-tier health care, as one document authored by the insurers’ own lobbyists shows.”
The Breakdown AB@thebreakdownab.bsky.social · 2w ago“This could end Canadian medicare as we know it.” “That’s the chilling conclusion of a recent report on Alberta’s push to create a privatized, U.S.-style health care system in the province.” #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli breachmedia.ca/pandoras-box...
Canada is trading real and immediate harms for speculative long-term benefits. We need to think twice about the race to adopt AI indiscriminately across every sector of society and the economy. Major new @policyalternatives.ca report on AI: www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
Think twice: A citizen’s guide to artificial intelligence in Canada | CCPA
Canadians need to think twice about the promise and inevitability of artificial intelligence and be prepared to push back on the AI industry
policyalternatives.ca
The oil and gas industry really has no peer in the field of corporate propaganda and political influence. Learning at the knee of such a mentor makes it all the more important that the data centre industry be subject to robust democratic constraints. www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
Strange bedfellows: How the tech industry learned to love fossil fuels | CCPA
Tech companies used to present themselves as the green vanguard. Now they’re a key driver of gas expansion. What happened?
policyalternatives.ca
“For the industry itself, if it wants to continue to expand, it should be welcoming these sorts of rules, because without the rules, we’ve seen how quickly public opinion has turned against them,” said @simonenoch.bsky.social #bcpoli #cdnpoli @policyalternatives.ca www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...
Vancouver councillor’s bid to regulate new AI data centres fails
A Vancouver city councillor was hoping to establish a regulatory framework for AI data centers, but her attempt to do so failed as the ABC-majority voted against the proposal.
ctvnews.ca
“For the industry itself, if it wants to continue to expand, it should be welcoming these sorts of rules, because without the rules, we’ve seen how quickly public opinion has turned against them” www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...
Vancouver councillor’s bid to regulate new AI data centres fails
A Vancouver city councillor was hoping to establish a regulatory framework for AI data centers, but her attempt to do so failed as the ABC-majority voted against the proposal.
ctvnews.ca
Is the free market going to do anything for these free market conservatives? ca.yahoo.com/finance/news...
Alberta will provide oilsands producers with incentives to fill proposed West Coast pipeline
Five major companies also agreed to build Pathways carbon capture and storage mega-project
ca.yahoo.com
Shot: During last budget Regina city council cuts budget for park maintenance and for planting and trimming trees saving property owners less than $0.50 a month on property taxes. Chaser: Viral post on local Facebook blows up complaining about lack of maintenance in city parks
Western Canadian Liberace is fed up with your mollycoddling
Corey Atad@coreyatad.com · 4w agocan't stop laughing at this Poilievre: "We will reinstill a warrior culture, not a woke culture."
“Only belatedly did they realize that declaring that your technology will wreak devastation would lead to a public backlash, and that this backlash would be a serious problem.” paulkrugman.substack.com/p/why-does-e...
Lisa Z on Paul Krugman
It's all of the above AND the gaslighting. The fact that it's being forced on us everywhere, even though it doesn't work as well as humans. All of a sudden, every website and app I use now either has ...
paulkrugman.substack.com
This is the first evidence Ive seen of water contamination via a closed loop cooling system cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/c...
Cheyenne Won’t Take Data Center Wastewater After Meta Contractor Contaminated System
Cheyenne announced Thursday it's suspended taking wastewater associated with data center systems after a Meta contractor contaminated the city’s…
cowboystatedaily.com
New episode: pca.st/episode/2ae7...
Monstrosities, with Rania Masri, Simon Enoch, Adam Wilkins, Lauren Stephens Smith, Sophie Toupin, Vijay Kolinjivadi, and Christiane Bailey
This episode is a recording of an event that took place at Concordia Univeristy: So an AI Data Centre is coming to your community? Don't panic! A roundtable on strategies for building community…
pca.st
“Why should employers bargain in good faith when they know the state is ready to undercut labour’s power in negotiations? Without the right to strike, workers’ power is short-circuited at the bargaining table.”
Charles Smith@profsmithsask.bsky.social · last mo.Carney’s building an economy on the backs of workers rather than for them.
www.friendsofmedicare.org/3000_dollar_...
TELUS Health Advertising $3000 MRIs to Albertans is the Latest Example of Shameless Two-Tier Profiteering
TELUS Health advertising $3000 MRIs to Albertans is the latest example of shameless two-tier profiteering. Why are these corporations being allowed to profit off our health needs?? @Friendsofmedicare
friendsofmedicare.org
“What does appear clear is that Canada’s tech companies want a private piece of this public asset, and, perhaps, so do the U.S. companies some of them are affiliated with.” Carney Is Selling Off Canada's Publicly Owned Tech Gem. Why? via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...
Carney Is Selling Off Canada’s Publicly Owned Tech Gem. Why? | The Tyee
Leading the charge is Build Canada and a broligarchy of AI boosters. Second in a series.
thetyee.ca
“The goal, Enoch said, is to put industry-friendly messages into the mouths of people students already trust—their teachers.” heated.world/p/an-educati...
The gas industry is sneaking into kids’ science classes
The Switch Energy Alliance markets its free classroom materials as “objective.” But they are backed by the fossil fuel industry, a HEATED investigation shows.
heated.world