This is the second episode of The Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special miniseries about embedding carbon removal into Canadian industry.
This is the second episode of The Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special miniseries about embedding carbon removal into Canadian industry.
Na’im speaks with Bill Adams, chief sustainability officer at Mercer International; Sheila Harrison, vice-president of policy at the Alberta Forest Products Association; and Tina Rasmussen, chief business officer of MLTC Industrial Investments at the Meadow Lake Tribal Council.
Bill walks through what decarbonization looks like inside a pulp company that has to make the capital case, including Mercer’s BECCS work with Svante at the Peace River mill in Alberta, which would capture about 500,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 a year if it reaches a final investment decision. Since the interview, Emissions Reduction Alberta has approved a $7 million grant to Svante for the front-end engineering study that Bill described as the expensive step before that decision.
Sheila focuses on the sector under pressure: softwood lumber tariffs, wildfire, fibre security, and the climate-competitiveness framing governments are pushing while companies are trying to keep the lights on. Her throughline is blunt. You cannot build a forest bioeconomy, or bolt BECCS onto it, if you lose the primary mills that already harvest, saw, and pulp the wood.
Tina shows what it looks like when that idea is built and owned by the people whose land it sits on. At Meadow Lake, the Tribal Council’s NorSask sawmill feeds the MLTC Bioenergy Centre, and that site is becoming North Star, Canada’s first major Indigenous-owned BECCS project, with a 15-year Microsoft offtake for 626,000 tonnes of durable carbon removal.
Na’im, Bill, Sheila, and Tina discuss:
* What a pulp mill actually is, and why biogenic CO2 from a recovery boiler is a practical capture target
* What has to be true for BECCS to move from an interesting concept to a real capital conversation at Peace River
* Why Alberta’s geology, policy, and carbon-price recycling through Emissions Reduction Alberta matter for projects like this
* What AFPA members are facing from tariffs, wildfire, and investor confidence
* Why keeping primary forest manufacturing is the precondition for BECCS, biochar, or any forest bioeconomy
* What Canadian governments need to get right for companies to be both economically and climate competitive
* How North Star connects a sawmill, a bioenergy centre, and permanent underground storage
* What a Microsoft-scale offtake means for an Indigenous-led project before steel is in the ground
* Why majority Indigenous ownership changes how the project gets built and who benefits
Relevant Links:
* Mercer International - Website
* Alberta Forest Products Association - Website
* Meadow Lake Tribal Council - Website
* Svante - Website
* Emissions Reduction Alberta — Integrated FEED Study for BECCS at Mercer Peace River - Project page
* ERA media release on the $20 million rural and northern package - Media release
About Bill Adams:
Bill Adams is chief sustainability officer and senior vice president, Canadian pulp operations, at Mercer International, a global forest products company with mills in Canada, the US, and Germany. He has spent three decades in forest products across Weyerhaeuser, Domtar, Canfor, and Mercer. At Peace River, Mercer is advancing a BECCS project with Svante that would capture about 500,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 a year from the mill’s recovery boiler.
About Sheila Harrison:
Sheila Harrison is vice-president of policy at the Alberta Forest Products Association, which represents Alberta’s forest products producers across lumber, pulp, paper, pellets, and panel products. She works the files that keep the sector viable: fibre security, wildfire, energy costs, regulatory certainty, and the climate-competitiveness agenda.
About Tina Rasmussen:
Tina Rasmussen is chief business officer of MLTC Industrial Investments, the economic development arm of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council in northern Saskatchewan. She helped develop the MLTC Bioenergy Centre, which runs on waste biomass from the Tribal Council’s NorSask sawmill, and is advancing North Star, Canada’s first major Indigenous-owned BECCS project, with a Microsoft offtake for 626,000 tonnes of durable carbon removal over 15 years.
About Mercer International:
Mercer International is a global forest products company with pulp, timber, and related operations in Canada, the US, and Germany. Its Peace River pulp mill in Alberta is the site of a BECCS partnership with Svante. Learn more at mercerint.com.
About the Alberta Forest Products Association:
The Alberta Forest Products Association represents Alberta’s forest industry producers. Its members make dimensional lumber, pulp, paper, pellets, MDF, plywood, and other panel products, and support communities across a province that is about 60% forested.
About Meadow Lake Tribal Council / MLTC Industrial Investments:
The Meadow Lake Tribal Council represents nine First Nations in northwestern Saskatchewan. Through MLTC Industrial Investments and related businesses, the nations own or co-own forest management, the NorSask sawmill, the MLTC Bioenergy Centre, and a majority stake in the North Star BECCS project. Distributions from those businesses return to the nine nations for community priorities.
About Svante:
Svante designs and manufactures solid-sorbent carbon capture technology for industrial emissions and carbon removal. It is the technology partner on Mercer’s Peace River BECCS work and received a $7 million Emissions Reduction Alberta grant for the project’s front-end engineering study. Learn more at svanteinc.com.
This episode was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consecon Foundation.
This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Daniel Kelter and Tank Chen.
Na’im Merchant is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He is on the advisory board of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative and Terraset, and a former policy fellow with Elemental Impact. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. This episode is part of Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special mini-series. The views here are his own.
Tank Chen is the Head of Content and Community at CDR.fyi, a public benefit corporation dedicated to accelerating carbon removal through transparency. He is also the co-founder of CDRjobs, a career platform for the carbon removal industry.
Daniel is the Senior Director of Public Affairs for Carbon Removal Canada. Based in Ottawa, he leads the organization’s engagement with Parliament, federal departments, and the wider carbon removal community, bringing experience from industry associations in the steel and fertilizer sectors and from the offices of Members of Parliament. His career has centred on building coalitions across industry, government, and civil society to move shared priorities forward.
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