Enbridge used a sponsored side panel at the Carbon Capture Canada conference in Edmonton on Sept. 15 to lay out its partnership framework for Indigenous involvement in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) projects — anchored to the company's proposed open-access Wabamun carbon hub in Alberta.

The panel, held in the exhibition hall rather than the main conference program, featured Matt Grant, Enbridge's director of oil sands business development and low carbon; Blaine Collett, senior advisor to the First Nations Major Projects Coalition; and Anishinaabe lawyer and consultant Jesse McCormick.

The timing of the side event was telling. Beyond an opening prayer from O'Chiese First Nation Elder Theresa Strawberry, Indigenous representation in the main conference hall was scant at the three-day gathering, which ran September 15–17.

Equity on the table at Wabamun

Grant positioned the Wabamun carbon hub — listed on Alberta's major projects registry — as the template for early Indigenous involvement, citing the participation "from day one" of then-Enoch Cree Nation chief Billy Morin. First Nations are being offered upwards of 50 per cent ownership when the project is complete.

He acknowledged, however, that equity is not a one-size-fits-all instrument. "Equity isn't always the way to go," Grant conceded, depending on community preferences.

He also drew a distinction between legal minimums and relationship-building: "consultation, which we have to do" versus "building relationships to establish trust."

Trust as a project variable

Collett framed the stakes in capital-allocation terms at the panel's outset. "One of the most important factors in determining whether these investments become a reality is trust between communities," he said.

"Experience has shown us that even the best projects can struggle if they are not built on a foundation of trust," Collett added.

McCormick, who has worked for First Nations, the federal government and industry, warned that a single holdout community can move project economics. Opposition from even one band "can still have a significant impact on your budget, on your timelines, on your reputation," he said.

His prescription for companies: show up earlier in the development process — "creating context for partnership, working together, and doing it in a positive way" — and know the distinct histories of each First Nation involved. He recommended proactively hiring former chiefs or councillors as a "powerful tool in building positive relationships."

The goal, McCormick said, is "to get to that spot where you're working in partnership, not only consulting."

Technical engagement and pipeline risk

Enbridge's engagement machinery includes a "virtual town hall" with rooms dedicated to different technical aspects of CCUS. Grant said the company deliberately sources third-party expertise: "We try to rely as much as possible on expert third-party material, so it wasn't Enbridge saying something or somebody from industry saying something, but it was scientists or people with a subsurface background, for example."

On operations, Grant pointed to Enbridge's existing CO2 pipeline footprint — "hundreds of kilometers of CO2 pipeline in operation right now in Alberta and Saskatchewan" — and said the track record "has been very positive." Emergency response plans covering both pipeline and subsurface are conveyed to internal stakeholders, emergency responders and communities along the route, he said.

The U.S. record is less favorable. The 2020 CO2 pipeline rupture in Satartia, Mississippi forced the evacuation of 200 residents and hospitalized 45 people in the rural community — an incident that has become a reference point for pipeline opponents and regulators alike as American CCUS build-out accelerates ahead of Canada's.

The regulatory timeline question

McCormick closed with a caution aimed at project schedules. Cutting regulatory corners to accelerate construction, he argued, undermines the very confidence the process is meant to build.

"We're not building confidence through the regulatory system because we circumscribe the timeline or the amount of energy and focus that First Nations can put into the process," he said.

For the Wabamun carbon hub, the milestones that matter now are regulatory: whether the Alberta major-project approval process concludes with the Indigenous equity structure Enbridge has sketched intact, and whether the company's partnership-first model survives consultation timelines it does not fully control.