Deep Sky Welcomes Quebec's New Bill Creating a Legal Framework for Carbon Storage in Quebec

 A Long-Awaited Step to Support Carbon Removal in Quebec

MONTREAL, Feb. 5, 2026 /CNW/ - Deep Sky, a Montreal-based carbon removal project developer, welcomes the Quebec government's introduction of Bill 17, An Act mainly to amend the Act respecting natural gas storage and natural gas and oil pipelines in order to provide a framework for underground reservoirs and certain pipelines. This Bill establishes a long-awaited and necessary legislative framework to support permanent carbon removal, achieve the province's net-zero targets, unlock major investments, and position Quebec among global leaders in this emerging sector.

The Bill sets out a robust framework for carbon storage that reconciles social and environmental concerns and enables the deployment of key technologies to tackle the CO₂ emissions that Quebec will need to remove from the atmosphere by 2050.

Deep Sky commends Minister Poulin's leadership in introducing this Bill, which responds to the need to capture and store CO2, a need clearly outlined by the scientific community, climate experts and economic stakeholders. In the absence of a specific framework, the deployment of permanent carbon removal solutions had been hindered in Quebec until now, lagging behind other jurisdictions. The Bill fills this regulatory gap and provides the province with an essential tool.

A Rigorous Framework for Safe and Responsible Carbon Removal

The Bill proposes a regulatory framework designed to ensure that geological carbon storage is carried out safely for people and the environment. These measures are essential to enable the development of projects that comply with international best practices in Quebec and strengthen public trust in this emerging sector.

The proposed framework also paves the way for major investments in the province by enabling project developers  like Deep Sky to generate and recognize carbon credits from permanent storage on local and international voluntary markets, as well as to access the federal refundable tax credit for carbon capture and storage, which covers up to 60% of investments in direct air capture and 37.5% of storage investments.

"This legislation gives Quebec the regulatory predictability required to scale from pilot projects to large-scale carbon removal infrastructure," said Alex Petre, CEO of Deep Sky. "It creates the conditions for significant regional investment while supporting Quebec's climate objectives. Timely adoption of this bill will allow Quebec to act now and strengthen its leadership in carbon removal. Further, timely adoption will also allow Deep Sky to begin construction on our large scale commercial facilities in Quebec by 2027."

According to the most recent report of the Advisory Committee on Climate Change, Quebec will need to develop permanent carbon removal infrastructure with a total capacity of 13 million tonnes per year by 2045–2050 to offset CO₂ emissions that cannot otherwise be reduced and achieve carbon neutrality. Direct air capture (DAC) and permanent geologic storage of carbon therefore offer a technological solution to meeting our climate objectives by leveraging our clean electricity and local expertise.

Significant Economic Benefits for Quebec

Deep Sky is currently developing two carbon removal projects in Quebec, in Thetford Mines and Bécancour. The Thetford Mines project alone represents an investment of over $2 billion and could generate economic benefits estimated between $1 and $1.7 billion, in addition to creating between 7,000 and 12,000 jobs during the construction phase.

Once fully operational, the Thetford Mines site will have the capacity to remove more than 500,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, equivalent to approximately 25 million mature trees. In December 2025, Deep Sky completed the first geological injection of captured carbon in Quebec, an important milestone in the project's development.

Quebec also has exceptional geologic storage potential, estimated at approximately 8 gigatonnes of capacity in the saline aquifers of the St. Lawrence Lowlands and up to 800 gigatonnes in the mafic and ultramafic rocks of the Appalachians and the Canadian Shield. These unique geological assets give the province a strategic position in carbon removal.

Deep Sky will continue its collaboration with the Quebec government and all stakeholders to support the effective implementation of this legislative framework and the responsible development of the carbon removal sector in Quebec.

About Deep Sky

Montreal-based Deep Sky is the world's first tech-agnostic carbon removal project developer aiming to remove gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere and permanently store it underground. As a project developer, Deep Sky brings together the most promising direct air carbon capture technologies under one roof to bring the largest supply of high-quality carbon credits to the market, commercializing and catalyzing carbon removal and storage solutions like never before. With $130M in funding, Deep Sky is backed by world class investors including Investissement Québec, Brightspark Ventures, Whitecap Venture Partners, OMERS Ventures, BDC Climate Fund, BMO, National Bank of Canada, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, and more. For more information, visit deepskyclimate.com

SOURCE Deep Sky

Media contact: Philippe Bédard-Gagnon, Casacom, [email protected]