DAY 1 - THURSDAY OCTOBER 22nd 2026

T2 - The Capital-City Duality

A capital city is never just a city. It's a reflection.

Ottawa-Gatineau carries a double mandate few regions ever face: G7 national capital and a metropolitan region racing toward 2 million people. It just ranked number one in North America for livability. But rankings capture a moment, not a trajectory, and the transformations ahead are big.

This panel unlocks how urban design can find the synergies and surface the tensions between public and private interests, clarify who's actually responsible for what, and catalyze the interventions still to come. Our panelists explore what it takes to plan a capital that carries national identity and federal function, while still delivering the complete, livable neighborhoods residents actually live in.

What does the future of the Capital look like, and how do we get there? That's the question this room is built to answer.