Business Roundup
Oct. 2, 2026

Economic development

• The now-named Pacific Link pipeline, a rebrand of the previously proposed West Coast Pipeline between Bruderheim and a port near Delta, BC, is being fast-tracked for approval. The project is the first to be declared one of national interest. "Before the Building Canada Act, proponents would have to spend years and potentially billions of dollars doing this work before even knowing where the federal government stood on the project," Prime Minister Mark Carney said in Fort McMurray on Oct. 1, noting that such uncertainty dissuaded construction. "Now, the federal government is making its position clear at the beginning of the process, rather than at the end." Officials told reporters the pipeline could increase the national GDP by $30 billion per year and is expected to create up to 140,000 jobs.
• Edmonton Startup Week kicks off on Oct. 5. The 10 companies to watch will make their pitches during the sold-out kickoff event; a People's Choice winner will be announced at Launch Party on Oct. 8. Because the week coincides with the Canadian Finals Rodeo, the flagship event will have a "farm-inspired feel," Edmonton Unlimited said. "There's no dress code, but if you want to lean into the night, think trucker hats, denim, overalls and a little farm-inspired flair."
• The top 27 companies selected by Startup TNT for its Edmonton fall investment summit pitched on Oct. 1, each making its case to move on to the finale on Nov. 12.
• The City of Edmonton has funded 43 community-led projects from its Downtown Action Plan Fund, which is investing $3 million in events, public programming, placemaking, and other downtown projects. Awards so far in 2026 include $1.7 million for programs and activations. Purple City Music Festival executive director Ryan Rathjen said the funding let the festival add 30 bands and five free showcases. "It's important that we celebrate the wins," posted Ian O'Donnell of Westrich Pacific; his organization got $5,295 for an art project with iHuman Youth Society.
• Winterruption has added a Northern Arts Conference to its 2027 programming. The conference on Jan. 21 and 22 will include more than 25 industry speakers.
• James Robinson, executive director of the Edmonton Downtown Business Association, reflected on a Recovery Day event in Churchill Square and how downtown's health depends on supporting those suffering from addictions and mental health challenges. "If we want Edmonton's recovery to continue, we must scale up investments in people, programs and partnerships that support recovery," he wrote.
• U.S.-based Walton Global Investments is seeking a change to the area structure plan for the Edmonton Energy and Technology Park to make it easier to build "a master-planned, hyperscale-ready digital infrastructure project within the City of Edmonton, designed to become one of the largest data center and compute-oriented industrial districts in North America." The land, which is north of Anthony Henday Drive and west of Manning Drive, is within the Designated Industrial Zone of Alberta's Industrial Heartland, as is Meta's data centre in Sturgeon County. The City of Edmonton has opened public engagement on the EETP proposal until Oct. 25.
• In a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail, Capital Power CEO Avik Dey discussed the company's 250-megawatt-plus, 10-plus-year virtual-power contract with Meta's Sturgeon County data centre as well as the company's Genesee power plant southwest of Edmonton. "We're hoping to build new generation that will contribute to the grid, for anyone and everyone who decides to build data centres or a new fertilizer plant or a new refinery or a new petrochemical facility," he said of the natural-gas plant. "Or we could co-locate a data centre on our land and provide energy directly to it, and additional generation into the grid."
• Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association launched its Built Here podcast with an episode explaining how the northeast Edmonton cluster grew into a $50-billion industrial region. The episode highlights feedstocks, shared infrastructure, carbon capture, and potential growth in petrochemicals, hydrogen, data centres, and critical-minerals processing.
• The University of Alberta has launched a regenerative medicine hub to connect biomedical researchers with clinicians, regulators, economists, and entrepreneurs. Led by Anastassia Voronova, the network aims to move research toward clinical adoption and commercialization. "It's really meant to act as a bridge," Voronova said at a launch event during Life Sciences Week. "You really have to think about it as an entire ecosystem to continue … There are a lot of questions that need to be addressed, and the hub really brings everyone together."
• Strathcona County is positioning agritourism as a pillar of its 10-year tourism strategy as it rolls out its Go Strathco brand. Eiblis Doherty, the county's senior economic development officer for tourism, said agritourism lets producers diversify while staying connected to the family farm. Bar OA Farms co-owner Bryanna Kumpula-Yung hosts farm dinners and workshops, though this summer's weather kept the flower farm out of Alberta Open Farm Days.
• Alberta is providing Beaumont with $38.5 million through a conditional grant for roads, utilities, and municipal servicing in the city's Innovation Park, including support for the Alberta Motor Transport Association safety campus. The proposed campus would include an emergency-vehicle track, a firearms range, scenario areas, and commercial-vehicle facilities.
• Sturgeon County is promoting its region to aerospace, defence, and security companies at DEFSEC Atlantic from Oct. 6 to 8. It highlighted access to Canadian Armed Forces assets, the Villeneuve Airport, advanced manufacturing expertise, and multimodal infrastructure.
• The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce is asking the federal government to partner with Alberta on upgrades to Highway 28 between Edmonton and Cold Lake, a priority defence corridor.

Startups and SMBs

• Cover All Program, Sidekick, Jobber, Aventura Marketing, CarePros, Dr. Phone Fix, Punchcard Systems, Mosaic Home Services, Insight Works, Aliter Technologies 3CIS, and SilverCreek are on the Globe and Mail's list of Canada's top growing companies of 2026. Spruce Grove's Slate Construction and Sherwood Park's Structure Group also made the list.
• Sea Change Brewing Co. has expanded to Calgary with Skelly Club, a brewery-taproom-restaurant in the former Inner City Brewing Company space. It continues to operate three Edmonton-region locations and co-owns Flat Boy Burgers, which also operates in Calgary. The company's expansion kicked off with collaborations with Calgary-based brewers. "We wanted to integrate ourselves in the brewing community, and also make it very apparent that we're brewing beer in Calgary," co-founder Pete Nguyen told Taproot.
• Tesoro Caffè Bar is returning to Edmonton's downtown on Jasper Avenue, 15 years after it closed. Owner Franco Maione said he hopes the café will add vibrancy to the core. "I know there's been a lot of doom and gloom in the area as of late. But I'm more of an opportunistic person, and I just see the future potential more long term for what downtown is gonna bring," Maione said.
• Vagabond will open a pop-up in the former Wilfred's space at 10429 121 Street NW on Oct. 3, in the same building as Made by Marcus and Next of Kin. Chef Christine Sandford told Taproot that she and fellow chef Roger Letourneau plan to stay until at least January with a looser, brasserie-leaning menu.
• DrugBank is making its data available through Microsoft Copilot as a plugin. "Bringing DrugBank into Microsoft Copilot puts two decades of curated, deterministic knowledge directly into the tools our customers already use every day," DrugBank CEO Lisa Downey said in a Sept. 28 announcement. "Every answer is grounded, traceable, and repeatable: the same question returns the same answer every time, because it's retrieved from our graph, not reconstructed from scratch. That's what turns an AI answer into something a scientist can stand behind."
• David M. Olson of Livmor Biosciences won the technology innovation award at BioAlberta's annual achievement awards on Sept. 24.
• Rosche Rheeder and Ricardo Rheeder of Lucid Rain Studios shared what they experienced at Gamescom in Germany on the Good Game Edmonton podcast. They said there were hour-long lineups to try INFERIUS, the studio's first-person horror game.
• Zero Point Cryogenics offered a look at its redesigned Model 1 dilution refrigerator. The new design expands the sample space, which is "where the science happens," the company said, adding that other changes have been made to enhance efficiency and accessibility.
• Quest PharmaTech will change CEOs on Nov. 23, when director Jeffrey Shon is to succeed Madi Madiyalakan, who has led the company since 2006. Madiyalakan will not seek re-election as a director but will continue consulting for Quest.
• The Traveling Tickle Trunk, an adult-toy store on Whyte Avenue, will close on Dec. 23 after more than 18 years in business.
• Vintage shop Alexander & Rose has closed its storefront at The Oliver Exchange in Wîhkwêntôwin after just over a year. The business plans to continue and is looking for a new location.

Real estate

• Richie Lam, the co-CEO of Westrich Pacific, suggested his company's redevelopment of Edmonton City Centre could include beefed-up security at building entrances. At the International Chinatown Conference, he said he'd like to see security guards at every entrance. "If you look like you should not belong at the City Centre mall, you're not working there, providing services or spending money, you're not coming in," he said.
• The Parks, a downtown rental community, has reached 97% occupancy about 18 months after its first lease, Zen Residential said in a release. The community at 10135 108 Street NW includes a 37-storey North Tower with 363 suites.
• Developers Panattoni Development and Fiera Real Estate are planning a 329,000-square-foot distribution facility for electrical-products distributor Texcan at WestLink Business Park in Acheson, CoStar reported. Texcan, a Sonepar subsidiary, is expected to occupy the building in October 2027.
• Some Edmonton condo owners say investment firms are making offers on multiple units at the same time to gain enough control to turn their buildings into rentals, which owners describe as a "hostile takeover." Darlene Reid of the REALTORS Association of Edmonton said investors can take control of condo boards and issue special assessments and levies that other owners may not be able to afford, forcing some to sell.
• Home sales in the greater Edmonton area fell 15.4% in August from July to 2,143 and were 9.8% lower than a year earlier, according to the REALTORS Association of Edmonton. The average price fell 1.1% from July. Board chair Darlene Reid said inventory is continuing to build and that prices are likely to face downward pressure beyond usual seasonal patterns unless demand keeps up.

More headlines

• The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce has released a 56-page set of recommendations for the next city budget, calling it a "back on track" plan. It proposes selling the remaining land in Blatchford, limiting neighbourhood renewal to basic repairs, and deferring property tax on major investments until they generate revenue. Coun. Erin Rutherford and the Edmonton Construction Association pushed back on postponing neighbourhood renewal, saying it would simply push costs down the road. Chamber president Doug Griffiths also said the city should reduce spending in areas of provincial responsibility. The city is set to begin building its 2027 to 2030 budget in November.
• ATB chief economist Mark Parsons said Alberta has weathered global trade turbulence relatively well, citing the bank's projection of 2.6% real GDP growth in 2026 against 0.9% nationally. He told CBC Edmonton's Radio Active that new U.S. tariffs affect about 1% of Alberta's exports to the U.S., compared with 5% nationally. He said unemployment remains elevated at 6.8% and that ATB expects the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates next year.
• Alberta is preparing a formal process for private-sector proposals for high-speed passenger rail between Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton, while the federal government plans to refer the corridor to its Major Projects Office. The province expects to select a proponent by April 2027 and says the trip could take one hour and 45 minutes.
• The immigration proposals on the Oct. 19 referendum ballot would hurt Alberta's economy, wrote former political staffer Salem Alahmad. "Albertans should ask whether these proposals will improve wages, strengthen public services, and make Alberta more competitive," he said. "Could they instead raise costs, discourage investment, and make it harder for employers to find the people they need?"
• AutoCanada has launched a strategic review of its collision repair business, saying the unit's value and growth potential may not be fully reflected in its share price. Alternatives could include a sale of all or part of the business, though the company said it could give no assurance the review would result in a deal. AutoCanada is also working to sell the remains of its U.S. dealership portfolio.
• Shareholders of Everyday People Financial Corp. have approved changing its name to Global Receivables Management Inc., with 99.9% of votes cast in favour. The company will begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange as GRMI on Oct. 6.
• NorQuest College president and CEO Carolyn Campbell discussed the college's campus plan and growth on the Executive Wins podcast. She said domestic student enrolment has grown 79% in 10 years and that the downtown campus, built for 5,000 full-time students, now has 10,000.
• CFCW was named large-market radio station of the year at the 2026 Canadian Country Music Association awards presented in Saskatoon.

Happenings

Here are some events coming up soon:

• Oct. 5-9: Edmonton Startup Week at various locations
• Oct. 5: Startup & Investor Speed Dinner starting at 6pm at Enterprise Square
• Oct. 5: From Idea to Impact starting at 6pm at Grand Villa Casino
• Oct. 6: Accessing Defence Procurement Opportunities starting at 8am at Edmonton Unlimited
• Oct. 6: From Learning to Action: What's Next for MIT REAP Edmonton starting at 11am at Edmonton Unlimited
• Oct. 6: B2B Reverse Pitch: Decarbonizing Alberta's Built Environment starting at 3pm online
• Oct. 7: Succession Planning for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs starting at 10am at Edmonton Chamber of Commerce
• Oct. 7: How To File a Patent That Will Bring Value To Your Business starting at 12pm online
• Oct. 7: Lessons from RCLF Leaders: What Worked, What Didn't, and Why starting at 3pm at ATB Entrepreneur Centre
• Oct. 8: Selling to the City starting at 9am online
• Oct. 8: Beyond the Highlight Reel: Honest Conversations About Building Startups starting at 10am at DiveThru (Central Studio)
• Oct. 8: What Makes Buyers Pay Attention? – Being Better Isn't Enough starting at 11am at Homestead Coworking
• Oct. 8: Launch Party starting at 5pm at Edmonton Unlimited
• Oct. 9: Lessons from Edmonton's UNESCO Learning City Journey starting at 8am at Edmonton Unlimited

And here are more to keep in mind:

• Oct. 14: Bioeconomy Guild Night at MKT Fresh Food | Beer Market
• Oct. 19-23: Small Business Week at various locations
• Oct. 28: ENBIX Luncheon & Panel at Westin Edmonton

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.