Google Montreal data center, Montreal, Quebec

Google's Montreal data center capacity is its Google Cloud region northamerica-northeast1 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which opened on February 1, 2018 as Google's first cloud region in Canada. Google says the Montreal region's three zones sit in one or two physical data centers and that it is expanding to at least three, but it has not said where in the Montreal area they are.

Google announced the region in March 2017, and its Quebec managing director, Marie-Josée Lamothe, tied the choice to Montreal's AI research, including the Google Brain centre and a $4.5 million grant to the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms. Hydro-Québec welcomed the region, with chief executive Éric Martel pointing to the province's green energy and the lowest electricity rates in North America. Google said at launch that hosting in Montreal could cut latency by up to 90% for users there, and it offered dedicated connections to its cloud through Cologix in the city.

Those cheap power rates are now changing. In February 2026 Hydro-Québec asked the provincial energy board, the Régie de l'énergie, to approve a new tariff for large data centers averaging 13 cents per kilowatt-hour, about double the current large-power rate, to take effect in the second half of 2026. Existing data centers would move to the new rate over five years, and the utility said it expects data center consumption in Quebec to grow sevenfold by 2035. "These tariff changes aim to recognize the contribution of our renewable electricity and promote responsible consumption," Hydro-Québec chief executive Claudine Bouchard said, in the English rendering DCD published. Large projects must also still go through Hydro-Québec's selection process before they get power.

The Régie de l'énergie decides whether the tariff takes effect, and Hydro-Québec's selection process decides which new data centers in Quebec get electricity; Google has not announced a new Quebec site.