It’s a cool spring morning in northern Alberta, as Matthew Michetti watches clouds of warm breath rise from the small herd of bison as they circle close to one another out of an instinct for protection. 

Then an even more magical moment unfolds as a female moves toward the fenceline, watching closely as the calf she gave birth to just days ago follows on wobbly legs behind its mother. 

“It’s hard to put into words how powerful it is to see bison returned to this land after more than 100 years,” says Michetti, manager of government and industry relations for the Willow Lake Métis Nation, located about 400 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

“Not only is our herd growing already, which is important for the future of our ranch, it is also an important symbol for the community as we become more self-sufficient and revive the culture that has been gone for so long.”

During a chilly February blizzard, 20 wood bison from Elk Island National Park were released into an enclosure on 82 hectares of land the Nation purchased in 2022 as the pillar of its long-term economic development and cultural renewal plan. 

From that milestone to the birth of the first calves and harvesting of the first crop of greenhouse-grown lettuce in May, the Nation’s ambitious sustainable farming initiative is quickly taking shape.

And as Michetti makes clear, the project’s success so far has been supported by critical partnerships with Alberta’s oil and gas industry.

From vision to reality

The roots of the Willow Lake Métis Farms project trace back to a pivotal moment for the Nation when it was able to acquire the historic homestead of a founding Métis family near Anzac, about 50 kilometres south of Fort McMurray. 

That acquisition was made possible through the Nation’s equity ownership in energy infrastructure projects including a share of Suncor Energy’s Northern Courier pipeline and a portion of seven Enbridge pipelines in the Athabasca region. The joint ventures are supported by the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation.

“Without those relationships, none of this could happen,” Michetti said.

It’s an approach that is gaining momentum across Canada. 

According to the Canada Energy Regulator, Indigenous communities now hold ownership interests in more than 5,000 kilometers of oil and gas pipelines, primarily in Alberta and B.C.

For Willow Lake Métis Nation, revenue generated through energy partnerships has become a cornerstone for long-term growth and development.

The land purchase set the stage for what has become a multi-phase project: a working bison ranch, a hydroponic “grow pod” producing fresh vegetables, and plans for expanded agriculture, traditional medicine cultivation and eventually an eco-tourism operation.

More than funding: building capacity

While financial backing was critical, Michetti emphasizes that the benefits of working alongside energy companies extend well beyond dollars.

“These neighbours aren’t just financial partners,” he said. 

“They talk to us about how projects are developed. We’ve learned everything from engineering and design to permitting and execution. Our projects today are fully engineered, fully permitted—we’ve learned that approach from being around these developers.”

That transfer of knowledge has helped the Nation build internal capacity and confidence, transforming what began as an idea into a professionally managed, scalable operation.

“We’ve had to learn how to be bison ranchers, and now we also understand project development. We understand patience,” Michetti adds. “We’ve learned that from our neighbours in the energy industry.”

From leaseholders to neighbours

Today, many of those same companies are continuing their involvement. Not just as investors, but as active supporters and future customers of the farm.

As the Nation developed the project, it reached out to nearby energy operators for assistance. The response was strong, with more than $100,000 in cash and in-kind contributions provided.

But for Michetti, one example stands out.

“One of our closest neighbours, CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corp.), stepped up as our first sponsor,” he said. 

“They also told us they want to be our first customer once we begin commercial sales. That’s the difference between being a leaseholder and being a neighbour.”

Those future sales, supplying fresh produce to nearby industrial camps and communities, will help sustain the project financially, while reinforcing local supply chains in northern Alberta.

A sustainable, community-driven model

The bison ranch itself is intentionally modest in scale, designed to balance sustainability with cultural significance. The herd is expected to grow to about 30 to 35 animals, producing a limited annual harvest primarily for community use.

“This will never be a large commercial operation,” Michetti says. “It’s about food security for our people and the Nations around us, and about reconnecting with something that has deep meaning.”

Alongside the bison, the farm’s greenhouse is expected to produce roughly 10,000 pounds of fresh greens annually, with additional acreage dedicated to vegetables and traditional Indigenous plants.

The project is creating local employment and training opportunities, with roles ranging from ranching and farming to operations and education partnerships with nearby schools.

“It’s about creating a different kind of economy here,” Michetti explained. “One that’s local, sustainable and rooted in our community.”

A model for reconciliation and development

For the Willow Lake Métis Nation, the project represents more than economic diversification. It’s part of a broader vision of self-determination.

Over the past several years, the Nation has strengthened its governance, expanded its economic base and built partnerships that align with its long-term goals. The farm and ranch are tangible expressions of that progress.

Michetti believes the collaboration with the energy sector offers an important lesson.

“The industry gets painted with a lot of negative brushes,” he said. “But this is an example where they’re helping lead—where partnerships are built on respect, and where success comes from working together.”

Back at the farm, that collaboration is already bearing fruit, both literally and figuratively.

“It’s been a life-changing experience to be part of this,” Michetti said. “There are a lot of good things still to come. In a few years, this is going to be a very special place.”

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Alberta’s oil sands have emerged as one of North America’s most attractive oil plays as costs rise in competing basins like the Permian in Texas, according to a recent report. 

The oil sands hold 177 billion barrels of proved reserves, making it the largest play in North America by a wide margin.

Existing operations have some of the continent’s lowest production costs, said Trevor Rix, a director with Enverus Intelligence Research. 

“Operators have become more efficient and have tremendously low sustaining break-even costs, arguably the lowest in North America,” Rix said. 

“Some steam-assisted gravity drainage [SAGD] operations can break even at less than US$40 per barrel.”

Meanwhile, comparative costs in the Permian have risen toward US$65 per barrel, he said. 

Misunderstood economics

Kevin Birn, chief analyst for Canadian oil markets at S&P Global, said the oil sands sector’s economics have been poorly understood.

“The oil sands require upfront capital and time to bring on new facilities, so you need to be patient before your operations generate returns,” said Birn. 

“Once you pass that entry barrier, the oil sands are incredibly competitive in terms of sustaining costs. After that capital is sunk, the oil sands are a production machine compared to other conventional and unconventional plays.”

Unlike U.S. shale plays, oil sands production is long-life and low-decline, without the treadmill of ongoing investment in new wells.

Large oil sands reserves support mining projects that require no drilling, while the standard SAGD method involves about 60 per cent fewer wells than the average shale play, according to BMO Capital Markets.

Today’s lower oil sands costs come in part from improved drilling technologies, faster drill times and more precise well placement, Birn said.

Practices such as predictive maintenance on critical equipment have also reduced downtime and unplanned outages. 

“These plants are running harder and faster for longer periods of time,” Birn said.

“A lot of it is simply learning by doing.”

Heavy oil market tightening

The heavy oil produced in the oil sands is seeing strong demand as global heavy crude markets tighten.

Increased oil sands production has driven a nearly 800,000-barrel-per-day surge in Canada’s oil exports since 2021, according to Canada Energy Regulator data.

“The heavy oil segment of the [global] market is probably around nine to 10 million barrels per day, driven by refineries that have built special equipment to handle that around the world,” said Birn. 

Increased demand comes alongside continuing long-term declines in competing sources of supply, principally in Latin American producers such as Mexico and Venezuela, he said. 

“We’ve seen the heavy oil market actually tighten because more refineries are putting capacity towards processing heavier crudes around the world,” he said. 

“That increased demand has contributed to a better price for Canadian producers. And that’s before geopolitical considerations led to uncertainty around supply.”

Pipeline capacity

Enverus is calling for more pipeline infrastructure, projecting that oil sands production growth will fill current capacity in the next seven years.

“Given the historically long lead times for greenfield pipeline projects, we believe it is prudent to begin that planning and permitting process now,” analysts wrote. 

Given the rising demand for heavier crudes, Toronto-based energy analyst Rory Johnston sees several plausible options for increasing capacity to send barrels to customers in the United States and Asia.

This includes expansions and optimizations of the Enbridge Mainline, Trans Mountain system, South Bow’s proposed Prairie Connector, and the new West Coast Oil Pipeline proposed by Alberta’s government.  

“We’re in an interesting sweet spot right now in that we have competing egress options on the table for the first time since the heyday of TMX, Keystone XL and Energy East more than a decade ago,” said Johnston, publisher of the Commodity Context newsletter. 

“But we can never take this for granted as options can disappear at any moment. If we actually are coming to a place of choosing what’s the best option rather than what’s easiest to get over the line, that’s important.”

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A new forest will soon take root near Edmonton, creating a “green island” within Alberta’s Industrial Heartland.

Roughly the size of 50 Canadian football fields, the Keyera Legacy Forest is a partnership between pipeline operator Keyera, environmental nonprofit Project Forest and Strathcona County.

The partners call the project a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to responsibly restore designated industrial land.

“In this province, it can take 80 to 100 years for a forest to establish itself fully. But if you are driving past this site in 15 to 20 years, you’ll look over and see a forest and you won’t know it’s been planted,” said Project Forest founder and executive director Mike Toffan.

Not industrial reclamation

The Keyera Legacy Forest is not an industrial reclamation project, Toffan stressed.

“There is no legal responsibility or liability attached to this site or any sites we work on,” he said.

Project Forest partners with landowners or rights holders who want to bring back wilderness to local landscapes, Toffan said.

The projects are designed to be accessible to surrounding communities, allowing citizens to engage with natural spaces.

Between 2020 and 2024, the nonprofit reports planting 13 forests across more than 320 acres, with support from 72 funding partners.

“What’s critical for us as an organization is there is no greenwashing through our projects. We are not an oil and gas lobbyist, either,” Toffan said.

“We have corporate partners in many different sectors, including retail and banking, but we are proud of our partnerships with energy companies, too. The ones we work with, like Keyera, are amazing corporate citizens who care about doing the right thing.”

Building ecological value

Project Forest previously partnered with Keyera to plant 4,000 trees in the 32-hectare Camp Creek Conservation Area about 150 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, and the Wagner Natural Area, a 251-hectare protected area on the western outskirts of Alberta’s capital.

“The Wagner Natural Area has a high ecological importance,” Toffan said.

“There’s a fen with very rare orchids and plants and it is essential that those unique areas are preserved as urban environments grow.”

New forest planting to begin

Work on the Keyera Legacy Forest will start this fall, with more than 40,000 native trees and shrubs scheduled for planting in areas that did not naturally regenerate following a 2009 wildfire.

“The forest fire burned so hot that the seed source was destroyed in certain areas. And while the plants are coming back naturally in patches, it’s not coming back like it should be,” Toffan said.

“It’s a complicated project because there’s above and below ground infrastructure in the region.”

The team will plant native species, with balsam poplar and white birch accounting for the majority of trees along with white spruce and western mountain ash. There will also be bushes including pin cherry and western choke cherry.

Long-term community impact

The forest will be on land owned by Strathcona County, which used a conservation easement to protect the area.

Stephen Rausch, the municipality’s manager of investment attraction, said projects like this help build stronger ties with industrial operators that want to give back to the community.

“It reflects our desire to be the community of choice for new investments that have broad impacts to our residents and economy,” Rausch said.

Keyera is a major employer and landowner in the area, said Brandon Wood, Keyera’s director of external affairs.

The forest is an opportunity to deliver a lasting impact by supporting biodiversity in a region where the company has operated for more than 20 years, he said.

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Dow Canada president Skya Kruithof has spent much of his career in the United States, but says that as a Canadian, he’s “extremely proud” of what the company is doing in Alberta.

Earlier this year, amid improving market conditions, Dow recommitted to completing a $10-billion petrochemical expansion near Edmonton where work was slowed the previous spring. 

“We always knew this was the right project for Dow and was going to provide real value long term,” said Kruithof, who was appointed Dow Canada’s president in 2024. 

He said the Path2Zero project in Fort Saskatchewan — which will produce polyethylene, one of the world’s most widely used recyclable plastics — shows the opportunity for Alberta and Canada.

“If you look around your house, you’ll see many products and materials made from polyethylene,” Kruithof said. 

“Rather than shipping raw materials to other countries to upgrade, this facility is applying some state-of-the-art technology and industrial processes to turn gas that would otherwise be burned into products several times as valuable as the raw commodity,” he said. 

“That provides jobs, positive GDP for Canada and improves the value of our exports. That’s why I’m excited.”

The project is being developed in two phases, with the first targeted for operations at the start of 2029 and the second at the end of 2030. 

Construction, which will employ up to  6,000 workers, is set to peak in 2027 and 2028. Dow projects the complex will provide 400 to 500 full-time jobs once it goes into service.

Demand for low-carbon products

Dow, a global giant, selected Fort Saskatchewan from a list of potential sites worldwide in part because of the existing infrastructure for low-carbon production, including the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL), one of the world’s largest CO2 pipelines. 

Dow has an agreement in place with ACTL owner Wolf Midstream to use space on its system.

By capturing and storing CO2 emissions and generating hydrogen on-site, the complex will be the world’s first ethylene cracker with net zero emissions from its operations.

Kruithof said it will help meet growing global demand for certified low- and zero-carbon-emission polyethylene.

“Many of our customers specifically look for products that are low-carbon solutions,” he said.

In September 2025, Dow finalized an agreement to supply Procter & Gamble with reduced-emissions materials for its products.

P&G’s portfolio includes major household brands including Tide, Pampers, Oral-B, and Gillette. 

Access to global markets

The existing rail connection to Canada’s West Coast was another factor in Dow’s selection of Fort Saskatchewan for its expanded petrochemical complex.

“This facility will feed the Canadian market and, to some degree, the U.S. market, but one of the really exciting parts of this project has been the access to Prince Rupert,” Kruithof said.  

The Port of Prince Rupert, one of Canada’s largest, is two days closer to Asia than any other West Coast port.  

“The port is key. We’ll send rail cars from Fort Saskatchewan on CN Rail to the Port of Prince Rupert . And we’ll fill shipping containers, which would otherwise leave empty, with polyethylene products for shipment to global customers.”

Welcome in Fort Saskatchewan

Dow’s Path2Zero restart was welcomed in the local community.

“People here have greeted this as very positive news,” said Fort Saskatchewan Mayor Lisa Makin. 

“Having an industry-leading facility being built here is a source of pride. It is going to create thousands of jobs for residents during construction as well as hundreds of high-quality permanent positions when it starts operations.”

The city provided support for the project through the Heartland Incentive Program, which provides projects with financial support during the early stages of development and construction.

Makin noted the city worked with the federal and provincial governments to help the project move ahead. 

The province has committed up to $1.8 billion in support through the Alberta Petrochemicals Incentive Program, while the federal government is contributing up to $400 million through its Strategic Response Fund. 

Additional incentives are expected through federal CCUS and clean hydrogen investment tax credits. 

“It was really a team effort between the province, Ottawa and us,” Makin said.

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The federal government is following through on a key element of its energy accord with Alberta.

In its spring economic update, Ottawa confirmed plans to extend the carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) investment tax credit to projects that include enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

EOR projects were notably excluded from Ottawa’s CCUS investment tax credit when it was rolled out in 2024.

“We were always puzzled; we were always concerned that EOR was removed from the conversation,” Mark Scholz, president of the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors, told reporters at the group’s December state of the industry luncheon. 

“I mean, EOR is a game changer for the conventional business.”

Enhanced oil recovery involves injecting CO₂ captured from industrial sources deep underground into mature oil reservoirs to help increase production. 

The CO₂ helps oil flow more easily out of the porous rock, making it more efficient to extract, while the injected CO₂ remains trapped underground. This process can extend the life of existing oil production while also enabling large-scale storage of greenhouse gases.

Six of Canada’s eight operating commercial-scale CCUS projects involve using captured carbon for EOR.

One example is the Weyburn-Midale project, which since 2000 has safely stored CO₂ equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 9.5 million cars—exceeding the total number of gasoline-powered light-duty vehicles in Ontario.

Having produced more than 600 million barrels of oil, Weyburn is one of the world’s longest-running CO₂ EOR projects. It still has decades of remaining potential, executives with owner Whitecap Resources said at the company’s investor day in January 2026.

In Alberta, Enhance Energy’s Clive sequestration project near Red Deer permanently stores more than 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ each year while producing oil through EOR.

The project helps reduce emissions from Alberta’s large industries while making use of existing infrastructure and addressing legacy liabilities from past oil and gas operations, said Enhance Energy vice-president Candice Paton.

“The inclusion of EOR in the CCUS ITC as a permanent geological storage option for industrial CO2 allows companies like Enhance to continue having a positive impact in both emissions reductions and energy production by repurposing existing assets,” she said.

Excluding enhanced oil recovery from federal investment incentives never made sense, lawyers Scott Masson and Tom Collopy of MLT Aikins’ energy group wrote in an analysis prior to the Canada-Alberta agreement.

“EOR is not a novel technology in Canada. These facilities, such as the Boundary Dam Power Station in Estevan, Saskatchewan, demonstrate that EOR is a natural extension of CCUS operations,” they wrote.

Including EOR in the investment tax credit would make the technology more financially viable for energy producers.

As a result, “Canada can simultaneously advance its environmental goals and economic interests,” they wrote. 

Along with existing regimes in Alberta and Saskatchewan, this will encourage more producers to consider using CO2-EOR to extend the value of mature assets, Masson told CEC. 

“This significantly changes the economics of a project,” he said. 

“When you are looking at CCUS projects, the incentive structures required to build them are important. We’re seeing a lot of projects in the CCUS space hovering around this final investment decision,” Masson said. 

“A lot of organizations have had problems getting projects across the line, and this change helps remove a sticking point that a lot of our clients in this space have had when it comes to CCUS.”

Calgary-based Conifer Energy welcomed the expansion of Canada’s CCUS framework to include EOR, saying it will help enable the long-term investment needed to advance major decarbonization infrastructure.

The company said access to the federal tax credit “materially improves” the economics of its future Alberta projects, which will permanently store CO₂ while supporting jobs and generating government royalties.

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If you’ve ever been to an event at Rogers Place in Edmonton, you probably noticed the massive exposed concrete walls and columns that give the arena its unmistakable sense of strength. 

That strength is real — because like many buildings, bridges, roads, industrial projects and even sidewalks in Western Canada, Rogers Place is built from limestone quarried in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Located about 350 kilometers west of Edmonton, the hamlet of Cadomin, Alta. has just 54 permanent residents, many of whom have mining in their blood. 

At the community’s edge is Heidelberg Materials Canada’s Cadomin Limestone Quarry. 

Connected by rail to the company’s Edmonton cement plant, each year the quarry delivers enough limestone to build 100 25-storey buildings or pave a 1,600-kilometre highway. 

“Our daily life in the western provinces – Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northeast British Columbia – is built by concrete that is made from limestone supplied by the quarry,” said Joerg Nixdorf, Heidelberg Materials’ vice-president of cement operations. 

Heidelberg Materials is changing the way it mines limestone at the quarry, resulting in a reduced environmental footprint and continued safe access to decades of limestone reserves.

From the quarry to your door

Second only to water, concrete is the most widely used building material on Earth. Versions of it have shaped construction for thousands of years.

A familiar material all around us, concrete is made by mixing water with materials like sand and gravel and adding cement.

Cement, the “glue” that holds the concrete together, is a fine powder made from limestone – like that from the Heidelberg Materials Cadomin Quarry – along with other materials that contain silica, alumina and iron. 

Worldwide cement demand continues to rise. The International Energy Agency projects global cement demand will rise to 4.36 billion tonnes by 2050, about 10 per cent above 2024 levels. 

“It’s exciting to be a part of an industry that provides a material that literally builds everything,” said David Perkins, Heidelberg Materials’ senior vice-president of sustainability and public affairs. 

“You can create almost any kind of shape that you want, and then once you place that shape, it’s extremely resilient. It’s 100 per cent recyclable, it’s fire resistant and it’s extremely long-lasting.” 

Decades of operations

Originally known for coal mining, limestone mining is now Cadomin’s main industry.

Inland Cement Company (a predecessor to Heidelberg Materials) began quarrying limestone at this site in 1954.

For decades, this has been done by blasting, slowly moving equipment down the surface of the quarry.

The quarried limestone is conveyed through an inclined chute underground, where it is crushed and stored before being transferred to rail cars to be shipped to the Edmonton cement plant.

The quarry reached a point where operators faced a choice: relocate all the equipment and continue working on the surface — an expensive and highly impactful undertaking — or move the entire operation underground.

Moving underground

They chose the latter, and the limestone quarry is now in the process of being converted from a surface mine to the first fully underground limestone mine in Alberta. 

“The transition will help lower our environmental footprint by minimizing surface impacts, reducing the potential for dust and noise, and eliminating the need for large amounts of caprock removal, all while ensuring continued access to high-quality limestone,” said Brent Korobanik, permitting and community liaison for Heidelberg Materials in Edmonton.   

“From an economic perspective, it helps us out, but the big reason is sustainability.”

High-tech underground fleet

Moving underground allows Heidelberg Materials to retain existing infrastructure such as crushing equipment. It will also require a new mining fleet, supplied in part by Stockholm, Sweden–based Sandvik Group.

Sandvik says the fleet uses next-generation automation, and the project “could redefine expectations for how underground mining is executed in Canada.”

Heidelberg Materials expects the underground mine to be fully operational by spring 2027, when surface mining will be discontinued.

Sustainable Cement 

As Heidelberg Materials works to reduce its footprint at Cadomin, its Edmonton cement plant is advancing new sustainability strategies.

In 2025, the plant hit a major milestone, with 50 per cent of its fuel now coming from low-carbon alternative sources including processed municipal waste, demolition wood chips and tire fibre.

The project received provincial support, including a $2.4 million investment from Emissions Reduction Alberta.

The Edmonton cement plant also repurposes byproduct streams from other industries to replace traditional clay, ash, sand and iron in cement production.

This diverts waste from landfills and helps preserve Alberta’s natural resources.

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New numbers show Canada’s oil and gas sector remains far ahead of other industries when it comes to environmental protection spending.

Statistics Canada reports that oil and gas producers and pipeline operators spent $4.3 billion on environmental protection in 2023 — the highest total among the 20 industries surveyed.

The figures capture spending on staff, services, machinery and equipment used to prevent pollution and restore damaged environments.

The investment by oil and gas producers and pipeline operators represents more than one third of total environmental protection spending in Canada. 

It’s more than triple the spend of the next-highest industry on the list, mining and quarrying, at $1.3 billion. Coming in third is primary metal manufacturing at $1.1 billion in 2023.  

From 2019 to 2023, oil and gas producers and pipeline operators spent $17.9 billion on environmental protection, more than primary metal manufacturers, miners and food manufacturers combined.

In 2023, across sectors businesses spent the most on wastewater management ($3.6 billion), followed by solid waste management ($2.6 billion) and air pollution management ($2.3 billion).  

In 2023, Alberta businesses accounted for the largest share of environmental protection spending at 39 per cent, followed by Ontario at 20 per cent.

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