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Alberta

Free IT for Nonprofits for Two Years, Apply or Nominate

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Nonprofit Free IT

Do you know of a nonprofit organization in need of professional IT support? 

If so, SysGen Solutions Group (SysGen) is running a program offering two years of free Managed IT services to four select nonprofit organizations – yes, free IT. 

SysGen is a client-focused IT consulting organization for small to mid-sized businesses headquartered in Calgary with offices in Edmonton, Red Deer and the Okanagan.

 

free IT for nonprofits

 

The program is part of the SysGen Cares commitment to the communities it operates within. SysGen Cares was launched in 2015 to support local nonprofits by sharing their team’s technical expertise and resources. SysGen Cares provides support to local nonprofits for the betterment of their communities. Nonprofit organizations may receive free IT support from SysGen for a two-year term through this program once applied or nominated for the program.

SysGen was founded in 1995 and is a major player in IT consulting firms across Western Canada. Over its 25 years, the company has received several national and international awards

The current program is open for applications and nominations until July 1st, 2022. Winners will be chosen based on financial need, local impact, alignment with SysGen values and culture, and readiness for IT support. 

One nonprofit in each of its actively operating locations will be chosen, including Calgary,  Edmonton, Red Deer and the Okanagan. The four winning organizations will be the recipient of managed IT services and procurement support for the noted term. 

Ryan Richardet, SysGen President said about the SysGen Cares program, “Charities form the backbone of our communities. Their work is important to support vulnerable and underserved populations. Giving back by providing IT support for two years is SysGen’s way of enabling nonprofits to focus on achieving their missions, faster. Technology improves efficiency and innovation, and SysGen is proud to provide strategic support to ensure nonprofits achieve their goals.”

To qualify for both the application and to fulfill nominations, nonprofit organizations must be registered charities with Revenue Canada. Nonprofits can be nominated or submit their applications, and learn more about the process via the SysGen website.

Alberta

Temporary Alberta grid limit unlikely to dampen data centre investment, analyst says

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From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Cody Ciona

‘Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests’

Billions of investment in new data centres is still expected in Alberta despite the province’s electric system operator placing a temporary limit on new large-load grid connections, said Carson Kearl, lead data centre analyst for Enverus Intelligence Research.

Kearl cited NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s estimate from earlier this year that building a one-gigawatt data centre costs between US$60 billion and US$80 billion.

That implies the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)’s 1.2 gigawatt temporary limit would still allow for up to C$130 billion of investment.

“It’s got the potential to be extremely impactful to the Alberta power sector and economy,” Kearl said.

Importantly, data centre operators can potentially get around the temporary limit by ‘bringing their own power’ rather than drawing electricity from the existing grid.

In Alberta’s deregulated electricity market – the only one in Canada – large energy consumers like data centres can build the power supply they need by entering project agreements directly with electricity producers.

According to the AESO, there are 30 proposed data centre projects across the province.

The total requested power load for these projects is more than 16 gigawatts, roughly four gigawatts more than Alberta’s demand record in January 2024 during a severe cold snap.

For comparison, Edmonton’s load is around 1.4 gigawatts, the AESO said.

“Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests,” CEO Aaron Engen said in a statement.

“Because connecting all large loads seeking access would impair grid reliability, we established a limit that preserves system integrity while enabling timely data centre development in Alberta.”

As data centre projects come to the province, so do jobs and other economic benefits.

“You have all of the construction staff associated; electricians, engineers, plumbers, and HVAC people for all the cooling tech that are continuously working on a multi-year time horizon. In the construction phase there’s a lot of spend, and that is just generally good for the ecosystem,” said Kearl.

Investment in local power infrastructure also has long-term job implications for maintenance and upgrades, he said.

“Alberta is a really exciting place when it comes to building data centers,” said Beacon AI CEO Josh Schertzer on a recent ARC Energy Ideas podcast.

“It has really great access to natural gas, it does have some excess grid capacity that can be used in the short term, it’s got a great workforce, and it’s very business-friendly.”

The unaltered reproduction of this content is free of charge with attribution to the Canadian Energy Centre.

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Alberta

Alberta Next: Taxation

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A new video from the Alberta Next panel looks at whether Alberta should stop relying on Ottawa to collect our provincial income taxes. Quebec already does it, and Alberta already collects corporate taxes directly. Doing the same for personal income taxes could mean better tax policy, thousands of new jobs, and less federal interference. But it would take time, cost money, and require building new systems from the ground up.

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