EverWind disputes Newfoundland land fees as it plans $10B AI data centre in Nova Scotia

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is trying to collect outstanding fees from EverWind Fuels for Crown lands reserved for a stalled wind-hydrogen project, but the company says it owes nothing.

"EverWind never signed a Crown land reservation agreement, accepted the province’s proposed reservation fees, or made any contractual commitment to pay the amounts now being claimed," said Matthew Tinari, EverWind’s chief financial and strategy officer, in a statement Tuesday.

The company "categorically disputes the basis for these charges and rejects the assertion that it owes any debt to the Crown," he said.

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The provincial government did not respond Wednesday to EverWind's allegations.

EverWind unveiled plans last week to build a $10-billion data centre in Point Tupper, N.S., for artificial intelligence company Anthropic, which has signed a 20-year lease for the facility.

The land dispute stems from a previous proposal for a wind-powered hydrogen project on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula.

In 2023, the former Liberal government set aside nearly 2,700 square kilometres of Crown land for the project and began charging EverWind more than $11.4 million a year, about 3.5 per cent of the land's market value.

Tinari said the company never agreed to that amount of land, which included watersheds, residential properties and community recreational areas, and that more than half was "unsuitable for development."

EverWind asked the province several times to reduce the reserve, and the government agreed in April 2025 to shrink it to roughly 1,800 square kilometres, according to letters obtained by The Canadian Press.

The letters show repeated requests from EverWind officials for discussions about the land and fees.

"There remains a significant amount of uncertainty in this industry, and high-risk development capital is particularly precious in the early stages of these projects," wrote Sam Imbeault with EverWind in a November 2023 email to government officials.

In October 2024, CEO Trent Vichie wrote to then-premier Andrew Furey requesting an "urgent meeting" about "ongoing Crown land reservation discussions."

Tinari said the province kept charging EverWind for land it didn't want, but the company made more than $5.6 million in "good-faith payments" while trying to resolve the issues.

In February, shortly after a new Progressive Conservative government was sworn in, the province took the land back from EverWind and two other wind-hydrogen companies, saying they were behind in fees and their developments had stalled.

Weeks later, World Energy GH2, a company behind a wind-hydrogen project in western Newfoundland, filed for creditor protection, saying its project would be worthless without the Crown lands. Court documents show it owed the province about $10.5 million in land fees.

A provincial Supreme Court judge granted that protection until next month, and World Energy GH2 is selling assets and trying to refinance.

At the data centre announcement in Cape Breton on Friday, Vichie said the 18,600-square-metre facility is scheduled to come online late next year but would not discuss the value of the lease with Anthropic.

Premier Tony Wakeham said Tuesday his province is open to data centres but has no regrets about withdrawing EverWind's Crown lands.

"I think what we do is we continue to move forward," Wakeham told reporters. "There’s tremendous opportunities in our province when it comes to hydroelectricity, and we’re looking forward to the opportunities for other developments."

With files from The Canadian Press, BNN Bloomberg and The Globe and Mail