I was editing a story this week from reporter Natasha Bulowski and I was struck by how valuable Civic Searchlight is at detecting what’s going on at the municipal level.

Natasha has been reporting on the impact of data centres on towns and cities in Alberta where the provincial government is trying its best to hurry the power-hungry developments along. Please donate to further this important work.

Again and again, reading Natasha’s draft, I was struck by how much detail she was able to bring to an Alberta story she’s reporting from Ottawa: letters that tiny municipalities had submitted to an esoteric government investment body, and comments from a rural county planning meeting. She found people to talk to who aren’t connected to any major group but who are making an impact locally — the precise kind of people we want to find but who can be elusive.

None of this is easy to get. I........

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