News & Events

Join Lorena Patterson, President & CEO of WaterPower Canada, as she sets the stage by unpacking Canada’s evolving energy needs and the significant investments required to meet them. Explore how hydropower, Canada’s renewable backbone, continues to attract strategic capital, enable grid reliability, and drive the nation’s sustainable energy transformation.

This foundational session provides an overview of trends in international energy project financing, with a focus on hydropower, and explores how lessons from U.S. and global projects could be applied in Canada. Join representatives from Power Advisory as they introduce WaterPower Canada’s newest study, The True Value of Hydropower: An Economic Analysis, wwhich emphasizes the longterm value of hydropower assets and what is often overlooked in evaluations.

Brady Yauch, Director, Markets and Regulatory at Power Advisory will share key insights from the report before moderating a panel discussion with Elaine Almeida, Partner at McKinsey & Company, Thomas Timmins, Partner and Leader of the Energy Sector Practice at Gowling WLG Canada, and John Uhren, Managing Director, Sustainable Finance at BMO Capital Markets. Together they will explore innovative financing models, global trends, and opportunities for partnerships and policies that support clean power supply growth. Through this insightful conversation, attendees will gain a comprehensive understanding of the financial realities, opportunities, and strategies shaping the next generation of Canadian hydropower development.

Across the province, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is making major investments to extend the life of its hydro assets to ensure they remain safe, efficient, and continue to generate renewable, low-carbon, and affordable power. At the same time, OPG is also exploring the potential for new hydroelectric development opportunities in Northern Ontario, in partnership with Taykwa Tagamou Nation (TTN) and Moose Cree First Nation (MCFN), where the Indigenous Nations are leading the process. During this session, Nicolle Butcher, President & CEO of Ontario Power Generation (OPG), will sit down with Lorena Patterson, President & CEO of WaterPower Canada (WPC), to discuss the challenges, breakthroughs, and opportunities ahead for hydropower in Ontario.

As supply chain pressures ease, new projects move from plan to build. This two-part session dives into the practical realities on the ground and how industry leaders are managing risk, cost escalation, procurement pressures, and complex financing models. Hear from experts across the supply chain and construction sectors on what’s working, what’s not, and how we can build a more resilient system. With perspectives from manufacturers, contractors, and financiers, this session will unpack how the industry is addressing ongoing procurement and financing challenges, and what innovations are helping move projects from planning to construction.

Part 1  |  Supply Chain Pivot featuring Heather Chalmers, President & CEO, GE Vernova Canada and President of GE Vernova, Hydro North America

Part 2  |  Shovels in the Ground featuring Nishant Gehani, Director of Power of T&D at BBA, Stéphane Boyer, Chief Development Officer for FirstLight Energy, and Jessica Polak, Regional VP of Operations with ANDRITZ. 

As Canada works to double its electricity production over the next 25 years, Indigenous participation will be essential to ensuring this growth is inclusive, equitable, and sustainable. This session will showcase successful collaboration models, with Charlotte Mitha, President & CEO of BC Hydro, sharing insights on their Indigenous equity programs, highlighting how risk-sharing, co-investment, and innovative partnerships are creating meaningful economic opportunities.

By hard-wiring equity ownership into procurement and aligning with provincial/federal financing tools, BC Hydro and B.C. policy have set a national benchmark for Indigenous equity participation in power projects. Attendees will gain a closer look at how these initiatives are driving both social and economic value while supporting the long-term development of Canada’s clean energy sector.

Clean energy projects demand creative financial solutions. In this session, Duncan Rotherham, Partner at Deloitte will moderate a discussion with Michael Caranci, Head of Infrastructure & Project Finance (Global Private Debt) at Canada Life, Ernie Daniels, CEO, First Nations Finance Authority, and Tyler Hume, Managing Director at CIBC, on how innovators across the sector are designing and implementing new and alternative financing models, leveraging technology, and adapting global innovations and best practices to meet the capital needs of a rapidly changing and constrained market. These industry leaders will share lessons on what’s working, what’s next, and how financial innovation is powering the energy transition while supporting the new demands of an evolving, innovation-driven grid.

Hydropower plays a cornerstone role to reliability, affordability, and long-term grid resilience in Ontario. This fireside chat with Robby Sohi, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Markets and Reliability at Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), will explore how system operators assess value across technologies as the power system undergoes rapid transformation.

The conversation will reflect on the system value of hydropower as a provider of reliability, flexibility, and firm capacity in an increasingly variable electricity system. It will examine how Canada’s grids are evolving in response to electrification, load growth, and decarbonization, and how the role of dispatchable clean resources is changing as a result. The discussion will also touch on key system bottlenecks and investment needs, including transmission expansion, flexibility requirements, and the challenge of delivering infrastructure at the pace required to maintain system reliability.

By bringing a system-level perspective, this session aims to move beyond technology-by-technology comparisons and highlight how hydropower can deliver enduring residual value to the grid in Canada over the long term, value that is often under-recognized in broader clean energy discussions.

The demand for low-carbon reliable electricity is intensifying along with emerging opportunities for electric mobility, data centers, mining, and energy export. To meet these demands, the federal government is mobilizing capital and coordination tools to build energy supply infrastructure crucial to Canada’s competitiveness, including hydropower. Government agencies such as the Canadian Infrastructure Bank (CIB) have mandates to coordinate and speed up federal approvals and fund key nation-building projects.

Moderated by Jay Khosla, Executive Director, Economic and Energy Policy at Public Policy Forum, this session will feature insights from Canadian leaders including André Bernier, Director General, Electricity Systems Branch with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), and Sashen Guneratna, Managing Director from the CIB, and will discuss concrete action plans, policy instruments, and investment models used to bridge the financial and regulatory gaps necessary to reaching final investment decisions for hydropower.

Additional panelists to be announced.

To close the Summit, Lorena Patterson will return to reflect on the key insights and themes explored throughout the day – from evolving policies and financing models to the innovations shaping Canada’s clean energy transition. By connecting the true value of hydropower to real-world financing challenges and opportunities, this closing session will reinforce hydro’s central role in Canada’s electricity future and chart a path toward sustainable, affordable, and accelerated investment.