Sessions & Schedule

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Start the day with a national view of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition in Canada and the policy questions that make this moment so important. This opening session will frame the opportunities and challenges shaping ETA in 2026, introduce the conference goals, and set the stage for a day of discussion focused on practical solutions to strengthen business succession, ownership transitions, and dealmaking across the country.

Canada is entering the largest transfer of business ownership in its history — a wave of retiring owners with too few prepared buyers to catch it. What happens to those businesses over the next decade shapes who owns the Canadian economy, where the wealth lands, and whether communities keep the enterprises they were built on. This opening conversation frames the stakes: why succession is the economic story of this moment, what's at risk if the handover goes badly, and why the people in this room are the ones positioned to shape it.

When a Canadian business sells, the value it created can either stay in the community or leave the country. This session goes inside the tax structures and policy wins that keep ownership local, from the employee ownership trust breakthrough to the financing models that let mission-driven capital acquire and steward Canadian businesses.

This panel will explore what supports business owners currently have as they prepare to exit, where the biggest gaps remain, and how trust, timing, legacy, and advisory support shape transaction outcomes. The session will highlight what it takes to make ownership transitions more workable and attractive for sellers across Canada.

This lunch offers time to connect with fellow participants from across the ETA ecosystem, including policymakers, funders, operators, advisors, educators, and ecosystem builders. Designed to support relationship-building and cross-sector exchange, this informal block creates space for conversations that can spark collaboration long after the conference ends.

This panel examines where financing gaps are emerging in the Canadian ecosystem and why viable deals stall. From lender appetite and capital structures to the deal terms that determine whether financing actually comes together, panelists bring both the capital side and the transaction side of the table. Drawing on the Canadian and U.S. experience, the session explores how policy, institutional design, and market innovation could create smoother financing pathways for both acquisition entrepreneurs and selling owners.

While there is great work being done across Canada in ETA skills training, Canada also needs more and stronger pathways to prepare buyers, sellers, and intermediaries with the knowledge, skills, and confidence required to navigate ETA successfully. This session explores what readiness looks like in practice, where gaps exist, and how educators, nonprofits, advisors, and ecosystem partners can help build the human capital needed to support the next generation of business ownership through acquisition.

Closing remarks.