Alberta Municipality Signed O’Leary Data-Centre Deal Before Key Public Hearings, New Records Reveal

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Public consultation can look very different once the public learns what had already been agreed behind the scenes. In Alberta’s Municipal District of Greenview, newly reported records add an important layer to the chronology of Kevin O’Leary’s proposed Wonder Valley AI data-centre development south of Grande Prairie.

The records place a binding letter of intent with an O’Leary-linked company on October 22, 2024, weeks before Greenview completed a bylaw change allowing data-processing centres as a permitted use in its industrial gateway. A more detailed purchase-and-sale agreement followed on March 25, 2025, before another formal land-use hearing that June. Neither sequence establishes wrongdoing on its own. But with Wonder Valley potentially involving billions of dollars, enormous power requirements and major water allocations, the timing is renewing questions about what residents and affected Indigenous communities knew while consequential public decisions were being made.

The Date That Changes the Wonder Valley Timeline

The most consequential new detail is October 22, 2024. Records reported in September 2026 indicate that Greenview entered into a binding letter of intent involving O’Leary Productions USA LLC on that date. That places a commercial commitment roughly three weeks before Greenview council held a November 12 public hearing on a land-use amendment specifically adding data-processing centres to the Greenview Industrial Gateway district. Council had already given the amendment first reading on October 8. Until the newly surfaced records, the project’s most visible public milestone was much later: Greenview’s December 9 announcement that it was partnering with O’Leary Ventures on Wonder Valley.

The distinction matters because municipal hearings are intended to give residents an opportunity to comment before elected officials complete certain land-use decisions. A signed letter of intent does not mean every subsequent permit or regulatory decision was predetermined, and Wonder Valley still required numerous approvals. Yet it changes the context in which the November meeting can be understood. Greenview was not merely creating rules for a hypothetical future data-centre operator. By then, the municipality had already been negotiating with the group behind what would soon be promoted as an extraordinarily large AI infrastructure project.

Data Centres Were Already on Greenview’s Planning Agenda

Greenview’s planning machinery began moving quickly in early October 2024. Records obtained through access-to-information processes show project representatives were already communicating with municipal staff about whether computing operations could be accommodated at the Greenview Industrial Gateway. On October 7, an executive associated with the industrial gateway asked planning staff about cryptocurrency mining because it was contemplated as part of an initial phase. The next day, council gave first reading to Bylaw 24-979, an amendment written specifically to establish a municipal definition and regulatory framework for “Data Processing Centre” development.

The definition ultimately adopted was broad. It covered buildings housing computer and telecommunications infrastructure and specifically contemplated activities including digital-currency processing, blockchain transactions and non-fungible tokens. More importantly, the final bylaw added data-processing centres as a permitted use within the relevant industrial district. It still required provincial authorizations where applicable, including Alberta Utilities Commission approvals, and municipal development requirements remained. The sequence nevertheless shows that Wonder Valley’s underlying business concept and Greenview’s regulatory preparations were advancing almost simultaneously. Within about two weeks of first reading, the municipality had also entered the newly reported binding letter of intent.

The November Hearing Was Followed by Final Approval the Same Day

Greenview formally advertised a public hearing for Bylaw 24-979 at 9 a.m. on November 12, 2024. The stated purpose was straightforward: amend the municipality’s existing land-use rules to introduce data-processing centres as a new permitted use. Municipal records show council then gave the amendment both second and third reading on November 12. That meant the consultation stage and final legislative approvals were completed on the same day, approximately three weeks after the newly reported October 22 letter of intent had been signed.

Calling a development “permitted” does not amount to automatically approving every future facility. Development applications still have to comply with applicable land-use rules, while power plants, water withdrawals, emissions and other components can require separate provincial authorization. The designation is still significant, however, because it establishes the use as one contemplated by the district rather than treating each proposal as a discretionary land-use question. For residents attending the November hearing, the broader significance would become obvious less than a month later. What had been presented publicly as a change to Greenview’s industrial planning framework was directly relevant to a massive data-centre development that municipal officials were preparing to unveil.

The Public Announcement Arrived on December 9

Greenview publicly introduced Wonder Valley on December 9, describing a partnership with O’Leary Ventures and announcing that the industrial gateway had signed a letter of intent covering the purchase and development of thousands of acres. The proposed scale immediately made the project national news. O’Leary’s team described a long-term plan capable of providing as much as 7.5 gigawatts of power to hyperscale computing customers. The initial announcement envisioned a 1.4-gigawatt first phase and put the cost of that phase’s power infrastructure at roughly US$2 billion. Total investment over the project’s lifetime was promoted as exceeding $70 billion.

Those figures were forecasts from the proponents rather than committed construction spending, and the design has continued to evolve. Still, they illustrate why the earlier chronology matters. By December, Greenview was presenting Wonder Valley as transformative economic development capable of creating construction work, permanent employment and additional tax revenue. O’Leary argued the location benefited from nearby natural gas, fibre infrastructure, water and Alberta’s cold climate. The municipality’s announcement also quoted O’Leary Ventures CEO Paul Palandjian describing engagement with First Nations as a core project value. Yet a nearby Treaty 8 community would soon say it learned of the proposal through that public announcement rather than through prior consultation.

A March Agreement Went Far Beyond the Original Announcement

The relationship deepened significantly on March 25, 2025, when Greenview signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with the O’Leary project group. Court proceedings have since brought parts of that agreement into public view, although most of its 59 pages were heavily redacted in the version placed before the court. Reporting based on the document says Greenview agreed to act as the company’s agent in pursuing water permits that could eventually cover as much as 24 million cubic metres annually. The arrangement also contemplated Greenview holding water rights in trust, with water authorizations forming a condition connected to completion of the first phase of the land transaction.

That provision illustrates how unusually intertwined the municipality and prospective developer had become. University of Calgary emeritus law professor Nigel Bankes described the arrangement as a major advantage for the O’Leary group because obtaining such regulatory rights would ordinarily be work undertaken and paid for by the project proponent. Greenview has said it will not publicly discuss the purchase agreement’s terms while related litigation remains before the courts. The key point for the chronology is less ambiguous: by late March 2025, the relationship had progressed from an announced letter of intent to a detailed land-and-water agreement carrying practical obligations for the municipality.

Another Land-Use Process Continued After the Purchase Agreement

At the same time, Greenview was conducting a broader overhaul of its municipal land-use rules. A steering committee had been established in fall 2024, and the municipality says nine public open houses were held in January 2025. Greenview described the exercise as a way to unify its planning framework following the incorporation of Grande Cache as a hamlet, reduce regulatory barriers and incorporate community feedback. Public consultation continued into the spring. Council gave the resulting Bylaw 25-1000 first reading on May 27, after the March 25 Wonder Valley purchase-and-sale agreement had already been executed.

A formal public hearing formed part of the bylaw’s approval process in June, and council ultimately adopted the unified land-use bylaw in July 2025. The resulting rules retained Data Processing Centre as a permitted use in the Greenview Industrial Gateway Heavy Industrial One district. Again, the chronology does not mean the entire municipal review existed solely for Wonder Valley; Bylaw 25-1000 applied widely and dealt with numerous unrelated planning issues. What the chronology does establish is that Greenview was asking residents for land-use input while simultaneously holding a substantial commercial agreement with the developer of its most prominent proposed industrial project.

Water Became One of the Project’s Biggest Regulatory Questions

Water eventually moved to the centre of the dispute. Alberta Environment and Protected Areas issued Greenview a Water Act licence on April 7, 2025, authorizing withdrawals of up to six million cubic metres per year from the Smoky River for commercial and industrial purposes at the Greenview Industrial Gateway. The Environmental Appeals Board later documented a maximum withdrawal rate of 0.56 cubic metres per second. Greenview also had an earlier preliminary certificate, issued in February 2024, associated with a potential allocation of 24 million cubic metres annually. Provincial officials described the six-million-cubic-metre licence as interim and said it would be cancelled if the larger allocation were eventually issued.

The provincial director argued during the appeals process that six million cubic metres represented only about 0.056 per cent of average annual flow measured at the Watino station, using annual flow of roughly 10.8 billion cubic metres as the comparison. But the controversy has involved more than percentages. The Environmental Appeals Board record says no Notice of Application was posted for the six-million-cubic-metre licence, although a Notice of Decision was subsequently posted for 30 days. Because the March purchase agreement tied water authorizations to the contemplated land transaction, a municipal water licence had also become commercially important to Wonder Valley itself.

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation Says It Learned About the Project Through the News

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation publicly objected in January 2025, saying it had received no advance notice from the province about Wonder Valley and learned about the proposal through the December announcement. The Nation identifies the project area as part of its traditional territory under Treaty 8 and says its members hunt, trap, fish and gather in the broader region and rely on the Smoky River. Chief Sheldon Sunshine argued that proper consultation had not occurred, while Councillor Rosalyn Goodswimmer said the Nation had received neither notice nor even a courtesy email from relevant provincial regulators before the project became public.

That account sits uneasily beside the proponents’ December messaging about Indigenous engagement, and it has since become a legal issue rather than simply a political disagreement. Greenview has emphasized that the constitutional duty to consult Indigenous peoples rests with the Crown and has said the provincial Aboriginal Consultation Office determined consultation was not required for the decision at issue. The municipality also says it remains committed to meeting its own legal obligations toward stakeholders. Those positions have not ended the dispute. Sturgeon Lake challenged the water authorization and later pursued judicial review, placing the adequacy of consultation before Alberta’s Court of King’s Bench.

A Court Ruling Put the Redacted Agreement Under a Spotlight

The confidentiality surrounding the March 2025 agreement became especially important in an August 13, 2026 Court of King’s Bench ruling. O’Leary Digital Limited sought to participate in — and challenge aspects of — Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation’s judicial-review proceeding concerning the water licence. Justice P.K. Johal concluded that the company’s connection to the licence was, on the record available to the court, contingent and speculative. One reason was striking: the purchase-and-sale agreement submitted as evidence had been so heavily redacted that the court could not determine whether or when certain contractual rights had crystallized.

According to the ruling and subsequent reporting, only five pages of the 59-page agreement were substantially legible, and O’Leary Digital declined to provide an entirely unredacted version. The court therefore rejected the company’s attempt to establish the necessary direct interest on the evidence before it. That ruling did not decide whether Alberta ultimately breached its duty to consult Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, nor did it declare Greenview’s commercial agreement unlawful. The underlying judicial review remained alive. What it did demonstrate was a practical consequence of secrecy: withholding contractual detail can make it harder even for a project proponent to prove what legal interests it actually holds.

Wonder Valley Remains Enormous — and Still Unbuilt

Despite the ambitious numbers attached to Wonder Valley, it remains a proposed development rather than an operating data-centre campus. An independent evidence tracker updated in August 2026 describes planning and regulatory preparation as ongoing and says required approvals are not yet complete. O’Leary Digital’s more recent description puts Phase 1 at as many as ten data-centre facilities of roughly 100 megawatts of IT capacity apiece, supported by up to two gigawatts of proposed on-site power. Long-term figures have changed across different public documents, underscoring the difference between a development concept and approved, financed operating capacity.

Alberta has also decided that Wonder Valley does not require a full environmental impact assessment report under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act. Environment Minister Grant Hunter told the legislature in April 2026 that an independent approvals officer reviewed the proposal and determined its proposed power and water systems were standard and proven. That decision does not eliminate other environmental, water, power-generation or municipal approvals. For Greenview, the more immediate reputational issue is now the historical record. The question is no longer simply whether northern Alberta should welcome a giant AI investment. It is whether the public had enough information about commitments already made when its formal opportunities to participate arrived.

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