Pacific Northwest economic leaders return to Edmonton after 20 years

The Pacific Northwest Economic Region is bringing its flagship event back to Edmonton for the first time since 2006. The 35th annual summit by the Seattle-based non-profit known as PNWER will connect industry leaders with government and private stakeholders from 10 western states, provinces, and territories from July 19 to 23 at the JW Marriott in the ICE District.

This year's summit will focus on four key themes: economic trade corridors, the future of the energy economy, the cross-border natural resources economy, and technology. Among the speakers are representatives of the Oil Sands Alliance, Beacon Data Centers, the University of Alberta, Travel Alberta, RUNWITHIT Synthetics, the Edmonton Region Hydrogen HUB, Edmonton Regional Innovation Network, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, the Edmonton International Airport, and others. Speaking of the airport, its sustainability campus is among policy tours scheduled for July 22 and 23. Others will take place at the Heidelberg Materials cement plant in northeast Edmonton, Anohka Distillery in Parkland County, and sites within Alberta's Industrial Heartland.

Premier Danielle Smith will speak on July 20, with recent developments on pipelines, data centres, and carbon capture to tout. That comes shortly after Pete Hoekstra, the United States ambassador to Canada, gives a fireside chat at which trade and tariffs will likely come up. Eleanor Olszewski, the Edmonton Centre MP and minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, will be at the conference, too, as will Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish and other provincial ministers, as well as former Edmonton mayor Amarjeet Sohi, now with New West Public Affairs.