Michelle researches AI-driven data centres as an emerging category of large-scale water user, and whether Canada’s existing policy, permitting and regulatory systems are prepared for the water demands of digital infrastructure.
Climate change is making floods and droughts more extreme. Geopolitics is reshaping what neighbours want from shared waters. And a new kind of water user has arrived: AI data centres, rising across Canada, around the Great Lakes, and in cities close to water. Water permitting is handled province by province, and right now no one can say with confidence how much water these facilities use, or whether the rules are ready for them.
Comparative policy analysis.
Her goal is to help Canada move from reactive water management toward governance that is proactive, evidence-based, equitable and respectful of Indigenous water rights. Through the Bruce Fellowship–Canada Water Agency mentorship program, academic research and public-policy engagement, she has been developing practical approaches to some of the most urgent water challenges facing communities today.
In Ontario, water is governed province-first: every large taking is licensed, one application at a time. But that framework was written before AI data centres became a category of water user, and closing that gap is now the policy question, right here on the Great Lakes.
For scale: the Environmental and Energy Study Institute estimates that a single large data centre can draw up to five million gallons, about 19 million litres, of water a day.
“Canadian freshwater policy cannot remain reactive in the face of global, geopolitical and rapid technological change.”
Toronto and the data centres rising across the Great Lakes draw on the same basin. Michelle’s work maps the policy gaps and regulatory blind spots in that oversight. A province can’t permit its way through the boom one application at a time.
Data centres are a new category of water user. Her research asks what Canada needs to know, measure, and regulate before demand outpaces oversight.
What she’s working on
Clearer reporting on how much water data centres use, whether provincial permitting is ready for large new water users, and the policies that make water reuse possible.
The Great Lakes are where Canada’s water and its newest pressures meet.
What she’s working on
Research on freshwater policy issues in the Great Lakes region; serving on the board of Water Watchers, a grassroots organization protecting Ontario’s waters; strengthening collective action for the Great Lakes and future generations.
Water governance that starts with respect for Indigenous water rights, not as an afterthought.
What she’s working on
Turning research into policy recommendations that respect Indigenous water rights; making room in Understand Water for Indigenous histories, teachings, relationships, and responsibilities for water; learning from Indigenous water leaders, like those she met in Ottawa in March 2026.
Policy only lasts when the public understands it and owns it.
What she’s working on
Understand Water, her water-literacy and policy-translation initiative; national campaigns like Canada Water Week; supporting civic literacy as an academic assistant for Power and Influence in Canadian Politics; research on online and remote voting in Nova Scotia municipalities.