Strategic Conference

Converting policy momentum into capital committed and projects delivered. Canada has the policy architecture, the geology and the incentives, with the April 2026 expansion of the CCUS Investment Tax Credit (ITC) to include EOR being the latest signal. What it still needs is the regulatory certainty and long-term price visibility that convert strategic positioning into final investment decisions. This theme sets the national frame: where the policy stands, where Alberta's advantage is real, and what closes the gap between announcement and committed capital.

Turning carbon policy into contracted, investable cash flow. Capital isn't asking whether CCUS is viable, but whether the revenue holds up for thirty years. Canada and Alberta's Carbon Contracts for Difference (CfD) and the new TIER price floor are steps toward the certainty lenders require, but credits, ITCs, CfDs and offtakes still need to stack into something a project finance team can model to FID. This theme brings the full financing conversation into one room: what makes a revenue stack fundable, and where the gaps are still leaving viable projects stranded.

Building the shared backbone the next decade of projects depends on. No single project will deliver Canada's decarbonization ambitions on its own, the country needs shared storage hubs, dedicated pipeline corridors, and coordinated public-private investment built at scale. Getting there means resolving anchor emitter agreements, storage rights, tolling structures, and the permitting and jurisdictional friction that slows hub development today. This theme looks at what it actually takes to move a hub from concept to commercial operation, and what the first movers have already learned the hard way.

Making CCUS projects smarter, cheaper and investor-ready. As CCUS projects scale from single facilities to interconnected hubs, the gap between high-performing and underperforming assets is increasingly a data problem. Digital twins, AI-driven reservoir modelling and automated MRV are turning operational performance into a measurable, auditable advantage, and the projects that demonstrate it are attracting better capital on better terms. Carbon Capture Canada will examine where AI is cutting cost per tonne, how digital twins are becoming the connective tissue of multi-emitter hubs, and what data maturity needs to look like before regulators and investors treat it as decision-grade.

Bridging the gap between proven technology and commercial-scale delivery. Svante, Carbon Clean and a maturing field of modular, sector-specific solutions are moving from pilot success to first commercial deployments. The question for project teams is no longer whether the technology works, but whether it works for their emissions profile, energy constraints and site conditions before capital is committed. This theme gives buyers and developers a practical framework for matching the right solution to the right project, and for understanding how technology readiness is being assessed and priced as the industry moves from demonstration to delivery at scale.

Earning social licence at home while keeping pace with the world. Indigenous equity ownership is becoming the template for major Canadian infrastructure, from the $715-million Stonlasec8 stake in Enbridge's Westcoast pipeline to the federal Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program now backstopping co-ownership of the Pathways project itself. At the same time, Canada is competing for capital against jurisdictions including the U.S., the UK, and Norway, that have already made consequential choices on policy design and delivery models. This theme sets Canada's progress against both the trust it needs at home and the competitive bar set abroad.