Aaron Walker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com

O’Leary Digital Limited (ODL), the company behind the proposed Wonder Valley data centre complex in northern Alberta, is appealing an Aug. 13 court ruling that barred it from blocking a legal challenge by Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (SLCN).

SLCN has called for a judicial review of a water license granted by the government of Alberta that would authorize the use of up to six million cubic metres of water a year from the Smoky River without consultation with SLCN.

The Nation’s lands in Treaty 8 lie near the river where its members exercise and assert their treaty and inherent rights. Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation argues those rights and interests in the watershed could be affected by the water licence granted to the Municipal District of Greenview.

The Court of King’s Bench is expected to hear the underlying judicial review in December, when it will consider whether Alberta breached its duty to consult before issuing the water licence.

While Greenview holds the licence, it is intended to support Wonder Valley. ODL says its agreement with the municipality concerning the project lands and licence gives the company a direct stake in the case.

In an Aug. 13 decision, Court of King’s Bench Justice P.K. Johal dismissed ODL’s attempt to strike SLCN’s case and refused to add the company as a respondent or intervenor. The procedural ruling did not decide whether Alberta met its consultation obligations, overturn the water licence or halt Wonder Valley.

ODL said it filed a notice of appeal on Aug. 21 that asks the Alberta Court of Appeal to find that it should have been served or otherwise allowed to participate.

“The August 13, 2026, decision does not change our project plans. We remain fully committed to, and confident in, the Wonder Valley Project and continue to actively advance it,” said ODL chief operating officer Zach Parston in a written response to Windspeaker.

For SLCN, the ruling preserved what it called its only remaining avenue for asserting its constitutionally protected treaty rights.

SLCN had previously appealed the licence to Alberta’s Environmental Appeals Board, but the board dismissed the appeal in April after finding the Nation was “not directly or adversely affected.”

The court record says SLCN was not told of Alberta’s November 2024 decision that consultation was unnecessary and obtained it only in January following a disclosure order. It also says that then-Indigenous Relations minister Rick Wilson told the Nation on Feb. 14, 2025 that no application had been submitted, four days after Greenview applied for the licence.

Following the Aug. 13 ruling, SLCN Chief Sheldon Sunshine said his Nation welcomed the opportunity to have its arguments heard.

“Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is happy to have the opportunity to vindicate our treaty rights and hold the Crown accountable on consultation,” Sunshine said in a statement posted by the Nation after the ruling.

He described O’Leary’s data centre as “a mind-boggling, massive project” and accused Alberta of using the municipality to move it through the regulatory system while evading its duties to the Nation.

“There is no environmental assessment and next to no consultation with our Nations,” Sunshine said. “If these massive data centres cause no harm, we ask that the province and O’Leary show us all the designs, the technical reports and let us assess these too, like every other project of this scale.”

Licence-holder and developer split

The case also highlights the separation between the municipality holding the water licence and the private developer it is intended to serve.

Greenview holds the licence, but ODL argued that a March 2025 purchase-and-sale agreement established the municipality as its agent and required Greenview to hold the licence for the company’s benefit. ODL’s purchase of certain project lands was also conditional on the licence being transferred.

Johal found ODL had shown only a contingent and speculative interest. The company submitted to the court a heavily redacted version of the 59-page agreement that left only five pages readable, and company director Paul Palandjian declined a request during questioning to provide a complete, unredacted copy.

Johal also noted that Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation did not know ODL existed when it filed its challenge. Until December 2025, the Nation’s dealings with project representatives had been conducted under the names O’Leary Ventures or O’Leary Group.

“It is too onerous to expect SLCN to guess who they had to serve, attempt extra-provincial service, and then seek an order validating that service, when ODL would not even confirm its alleged entitlement to the Water Licence. ODL cannot withhold basic information and then blame SLCN for failing to take additional procedural steps to discover it,” Johal said.

University of Calgary legal scholar Nigel Bankes said the ruling reflects the limited nature of ODL’s current legal interest in both the industrial park and the water licence.

“The Court has rejected ODL’s claim on the basis that ODL is not directly affected since it has only a contingent interest in the industrial park and water licence under a purchase and sale agreement (PSA),” Bankes explained.

Bankes said ODL “elected to heavily redact the PSA,” preventing the Nation and the court from determining whether its claimed rights to the land and licence had taken effect.

Greenview chief administrative officer Stacey Wabick said the redacted portions contain third-party commercial and financial information protected under Alberta’s Access to Information Act. He said Greenview would review whether more information could be released as contractual conditions are satisfied and commercial sensitivity declines.

The ruling did not decide whether municipalities may obtain approvals for future private tenants. It does, however, show the risks created when the formal licence-holder and intended beneficiary are different entities, particularly when much of the agreement connecting them remains confidential.

Wabick said the municipality has been developing the Greenview Industrial Gateway since 2013 and first applied for a water licence in June 2021, more than three years before its Wonder Valley agreement. That application sought up to 24 million cubic metres annually for four projected petrochemical facilities.

Alberta determined the earlier application required consultation with SLCN, according to the court record. However, according to Johal’s Aug. 13 decision, the Nation was neither notified nor consulted before a preliminary certificate was issued in February 2024, reserving the proposed allocation but authorizing no water withdrawals.

Greenview applied separately in February 2025 for up to six million cubic metres annually to support Wonder Valley’s first phase. Although the court described this as a reduced amount, Wabick said the applications were separate and not cumulative. Alberta had determined consultation was unnecessary and issued the licence on April 7, 2025.

Wabick said the six-million-cubic-metre licence must be cancelled once a permanent licence is issued. Consultation will be required before a permanent licence or approval to build a permanent intake can be granted.

“Greenview doesn’t think the relationship between neighbouring governments should be defined by the minimum of regulations, and a jurisdictional answer doesn’t respond to the concerns the Nation has raised about the Smoky River. Greenview is prepared to meet with the Nation’s leadership without preconditions and will take part in the formal consultation on the permanent water supply when Alberta initiates it,” Wabick told Windspeaker.

Water use and environmental review

ODL said it has engaged with Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation for more than a year through meetings, site tours and offers of mediation, but did not identify any resulting project changes.

The company told Windspeaker that recycled water should meet all routine non-potable industrial demand and account for about 80 per cent of total use at full buildout. It expects closed-loop systems to keep annual demand below six million cubic metres.

However, ODL did not provide phase-by-phase withdrawal and consumption figures, indicate how much water would be returned to the watershed or identify protections that would apply during drought or low-flow conditions.

ODL also did not commit to releasing all environmental and technical studies directly to Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. Instead, it pointed to an application prepared under Alberta’s Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act for the project’s potable water system. If regulators deem the application complete, a public notice will identify where it can be reviewed and how interested parties can file statements of concern.

Alberta’s Environment and Protected Areas minister’s office did not explain why the six-million-cubic-metre licence was found not to require consultation. It said Wonder Valley received no special treatment and would still need approvals addressing water, wetlands, air emissions and other environmental effects despite not being required to complete a provincial environmental impact assessment (EIA).

“The absence of an EIA signals that a technology is well understood,” the minister’s office said. “It does not mean the absence of environmental review, and it never means a project skips its approvals.”

When the case returns to court in December, the focus is expected to shift from who can participate to whether Alberta breached its duty to consult and whether its consultation decision and Greenview’s water licence should be set aside. ODL’s appeal keeps the arrangement behind the licence — who holds it, who stands to benefit and who gets a voice in court — at the centre of the dispute.

Windspeaker.com

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