Business Roundup

Economic development

• Messer Canada, which makes industrial gases for welding and other uses, is bringing its industrial expo to Edmonton on April 30. The company, which has a main facility in northeast Edmonton and a secondary one in Nisku, saw an opportunity to raise its profile here at a time when shovels are hitting the ground for major projects, suggested Messer's Ryan Brodrecht. "We see a need in bringing the latest and greatest in welding technology to our customers," he told Taproot. "We really felt that there was a need to do something out here in Alberta."
• At the Canadian Hydrogen Convention, Japanese firm Kawasaki Heavy Industries signed a memorandum of understanding with Edmonton Global, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association, and the Edmonton Region Hydrogen HUB to build a supply chain for liquefied hydrogen in Canada. "Liquefied hydrogen is moving from demonstration to reality," Kawasaki's Kei Nomura said on April 21. "We think Canada, and especially Alberta, (has) strong potential — not only for domestic use, but for export."
• Edmonton International Airport CEO Myron Keehn said YEG is well-positioned to weather a global jet fuel crisis. Speaking on a panel at the Canadian Hydrogen Convention at the Edmonton Convention Centre, Keehn noted an intensified global push, particularly in Asia, to reduce reliance on Middle East oil, and identified Alberta and Canada as key players in hydrogen production. He said Edmonton is a testing ground for alternative fuels, with YEG already using hydrogen-powered vehicles for runway inspections, passenger assistance, and snow-sweeping. The airport's release about hydrogen potential notes the importance of collaborations with Diesel Tech Industries and Alberta Innovates.
• University of Alberta chemistry professor Steve Bergens has patented a process to create hydrogen from water and has licensed it to a clean-energy company called Cipher Neutron. Most hydrogen comes from burning natural gas, which generates carbon dioxide, but this technology makes it possible to derive the gas from seawater.
• Emissions Reduction Alberta launched the Future Fuels Challenge, a $50-million initiative to back lower-carbon transportation fuel technologies with $1 million to $10 million per project. The deadline for expressions of interest is June 4.
• Prairies Economic Development Canada has awarded more than $8.4 million to six Edmonton-region manufacturing and construction projects, including $3.4 million for Flexxaire to automate production and expand into European markets. The other recipients are Akash Homes, Alta-Fab Structures, Weldco-Beales Manufacturing, Whitemud Ironworks, and Armtec.
• Prairies Economic Development Canada has invested nearly $1.94 million for eight Alberta tourism projects, including a new glamping and Métis tourism experience by Rural River Rentals in Sturgeon County and a new event space at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village.
• The Alberta Enterprise Corporation will invest $7.5 million into the fifth fund from Mistral Venture Partners, which focuses on AI's impact on enterprise software. AEC's Christiana Manzocco said Mistral has already invested in nine Alberta startups and is building a deeper, longer-term presence in the province. Raif Barbaros, a partner with Mistral, told BetaKit the firm will hire a full-time staff member in Calgary.
• Several artists, vendors, and businesses who participated in the International Indigenous Tourism Conference in Edmonton have not been paid or were slow to receive payment, due to cash-flow problems at the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, APTN reported. "We felt very slighted," said Nathan Rainy Chief of 49 Dzine. "We came as a community. The community showed up for tourism, now tourism needs to show up for the community, is how I put it."

Startups and SMBs

• SketchDeck.ai has closed a funding round led by Montreal's Boreal Ventures, with participation from BDC Capital and BKR Capital. The investment will make it possible to accelerate the startup's product roadmap and expand into other parts of the value chain, beyond optimizing steel estimation, founder and CEO Daniel Kamau said in a release. He added on LinkedIn that JD Saint-Martin of Boreal Ventures will join his board. Saint-Martin posted that he was "completely blown away by the impressive traction and progress the team made in a short period of time."
• Areto Labs co-founder Jacqueline Comer won an international award for AI safety for work that helped lead to the company's hate-speech index and microaggressions detection tools.
• Ordr has signed a payments partnership with Resorts World Las Vegas for Zouk Nightclub and Ayu Dayclub.
• The University of Alberta highlighted T.rex AI's grid-edge load-balancing technology, which the company developed with help from the Innovation Catalyst Grant. Intake for the next cohort of the two-year entrepreneurial fellowship opens on May 1.
• Entos Pharmaceuticals has partnered with the L-CMD Research Foundation to develop a gene therapy for LMNA-related congenital muscular dystrophy, a rare and fatal childhood disease with no approved treatment. The organizations said they will combine Entos's delivery platform with the foundation's disease expertise.
• A peer-reviewed study has validated ClarityDX Prostate models from Nanostics and estimated that they could reduce unnecessary biopsies by 47% while detecting more than 94% of aggressive cancers, the company said in a news release.
• The April 28 launch of Antigoni Studios will hear from emergency room physician Shazma Mithani, women's health researcher Reyes Martinez, and My Fertility Labs CEO Sarah Harper.
• ChocoFest in Sherwood Park on April 24 and 25 will include 12 Edmonton-region vendors, including 7 Summits Snacks and Delavoye Chocolate Maker.
• The Edmonton Indie Bookstore Extravaganza is back for a third year, encouraging book-lovers to visit 16 participating vendors on April 25 and 26. "Indie bookstores breed and curate and boost and uplift independent or marginal writers, authors, publishers — much like independent music labels," coordinator Céline Chuang of Paper Birch Books told Taproot.
• Sunco Communication and Installation CEO Mike Schoenberger joined The Business Development Podcast to discuss intuition, company culture, and vulnerable leadership.
• The Long Term Podcast spoke to barber Jack Heath of Hectic Cutz about the costs, uncertainty, and persistence involved in starting a barbering business.
• Artificial Agency is partnering with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute to offer a year-long machine learning residency. The successful candidate will build agentic systems for the next generation of video games.
• Smart Access's US$12M Series A round and Aurora Hydrogen's US$3M early VC round were among the province's five biggest deals of the quarter, according to Dealroom.co's Q1 2026 investment report.
• Startup TNT livestreamed pitches from 19 Edmonton companies vying for a spot in the spring investment summit finale, which will take place on May 28.
• Restaurateurs continue to voice their frustrations with new patio fees implemented by the City of Edmonton. Mona Jager, who owns Pub 1905, and Wayne Jones, who co-owns Rocky Mountain Icehouse and Cask & Barrel, told Postmedia they feel betrayed because the city encouraged restaurants to build patio infrastructure before adding fees of up to $6,900 this year. "I think it's an unfair burden to put it on restaurants and bars who have patios," Jones said, noting that the city had pushed hard for winter patios. Meanwhile, Mayor Andrew Knack maintains that the costs are necessary due to revenue lost from photo radar fines.

Real estate

• Some homeowners in south Edmonton's Duggan neighbourhood are turning to legal measures to curb large-scale infill development by placing restrictive covenants on property titles to limit future redevelopment, even after homes are sold. The move comes as some residents object to a proposed multi-unit project they say is out of character for the low-density area.
• The City of Edmonton plans to tighten oversight of problem builders following complaints about messy sites and unsafe practices tied to infill development. Because permits cannot legally be denied based on past performance, the Construction Accountability Program will instead flag low-compliance builders for "high oversight," requiring extra planning, training, and on-site monitoring. The city expects to introduce further bylaw changes by 2027 to make repeat offenders cover the added enforcement costs. BILD Edmonton Metro said it supports the program's intent but cautioned against creating barriers for companies already following the rules. BILD has published a 22-point plan to reset the public conversation around infill.
• The City of Edmonton will convene housing leaders from across the Prairies from May 11 to 14 in an effort to advance affordable and non-market housing. Housing Forward builds off of a one-day symposium the city held in the fall. The city says the four-day symposium is the logical next step. "Since 2019, we've increased our housing inventory by more than 40%, so we have some successes that we want to share with others, but it's also continuous improvement," Stuart Kehrig, director of the city's Housing Action Team, told Taproot.
• The City of Edmonton is investing $15 million in Phase 1 of the Rossdale Flats redevelopment to overhaul underground infrastructure, as the decade-old River Crossing project navigates ongoing opposition from environmental and Indigenous groups.
• Edmonton has become a renter's market, CBC reported, as new supply from zoning changes and federal financing outpaces demand, pushing asking rents lower and prompting landlords to offer incentives.
• The deep-energy retrofit of downtown's SunRise tower produced a Guinness World Record for the largest solar-panel artwork and turned the 56-year-old building into a sustainability showcase, The Globe and Mail reported.
• BOMA Edmonton has recognized multiple Edmonton-region properties for achieving BOMA BEST certification, highlighting operational performance and sustainability.

More headlines

• The Edmonton Community Development Company has appointed Melissa Radu and Puneeta McBryan to its board as it works on a new strategy. McBryan, the past CEO of the Edmonton Downtown Business Association, also shared that she and Alexandra Hryciw have launched a consultancy called Alloy Strategies.
• Joe Gagliardi, managing partner at Recruitment Partners, has received the 2026 CPA Education Foundation Impact Award in recognition of his long-standing support of students, scholarships, and case competitions.
• NAIT has appointed Energex CEO Melanie Bayley as chair of its board of governors for a three-year term.
• Ken Bautista has left his role as vice-president of growth at Edmonton Unlimited.
• An undergraduate team from the University of Alberta's eHUB Entrepreneurship Centre finished sixth overall at the Venture Capital Investment Competition global finals and tied for second in the investment committee pitch and memo categories.
• Edmonton International Airport said it will raise its Airport Improvement Fee to $35 from $40 to help fund terminal redevelopment and other infrastructure projects.
• Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea's Hanwha Group to pursue investment and collaboration in aerospace, energy, and advanced manufacturing.
• Alberta electricity providers are managing aging infrastructure and surging electricity demand, balancing the pressure to replace century-old systems against the need to keep power affordable as usage grows.
• Business Link looked back on 30 years of serving Alberta entrepreneurs, from phone and fax support in the 1990s to today's webinars, online tools, and virtual advising.
• Samantha Iligan of Letters to New Grads argued that networking works better when people focus on curiosity and partnership instead of treating every conversation like a job pitch.

Happenings

Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:

• April 24: Introducing Unbounded Thinking's Innovation Process starting at 12pm at the ATB Entrepreneur Centre
• April 24: Friendly Fridays April Edition: Talent, Learning, Community & Collaboration starting at 2:30pm at Edmonton Research Park
• April 25: Volunteer Recognition & Retention starting at 9am at City of Leduc Civic Centre
• April 25: Edmonton Volunteer Fair starting at 10am at West Edmonton Mall
• April 25: ACE Awards – 47th Annual Show starting at 6pm at JW Marriott Hotel Edmonton Ice District
• April 28: Stop Guessing, Start Posting: LinkedIn Demystified for Editors starting at 12pm online
• April 28: Ask Me Anything Pub Event - ATCO Feature starting at 3pm at Fu's Repair Shop
• April 28: How to Optimize Your Personal LinkedIn starting at 5:30pm online
• April 29: Spring Soirée: An Evening With Alumni starting at 6pm at MacEwan University (The Lookout)
• April 30: YEG Sponsorship Socials - Part III starting at 4pm at Edmonton Convention Centre

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• May 9: ACE Conference at Edmonton Convention Centre
• May 14-15: Global Economic Diversification Summit at Edmonton Convention Centre
• May 20: Advanced Manufacturing Summit at NAIT

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