Hi all.
With the helpful guidance of some of our experts it has been determined that Albertans may well be taken to the cleaners on this, and perhaps other, coal settlements. Yes, $142.8 million is a far cry from $16 billion, but $52.3 million is quite a distance from the $142.8. The following letter and media release explains the “why”.
Statement on Coal Payments
by Chris Spearman
Albertans are not getting a good deal when public dollars are used to pay off foreign owned coal companies for a situation the government created without a mandate.
Our Alberta government is highly motivated to settle with coal companies and Albertans are paying the price.
There is a long history of political involvement with coal companies.
link: https://www.stalbertgazette.com/local-news/timeline-of-how-lobbyists-with-ties-to-ucp-pushed-coal-policy-rewrite-10119621
Neither the UCP government of Jason Kenney nor the UCP government of Danielle Smith sought or received a mandate from Albertans for coal mining.
Former Alberta Energy Minister Sonja Savage admitted opening up the eastern slopes to coal mining was a mistake.
There are clauses in the Alberta Mines and Minerals Act that limit settlements.
Section 8(1)(b) of the Mines and Minerals Act provides the Minister with the power to acquire by expropriation [pursuant to the Expropriation Act] any estate or interest in minerals, if the Minister is of the opinion that any further exploration for, or development of, those minerals is not in the public interest.
Section 8(1)(c) of the Act allows the Minister to cancel or refuse to renew an agreement when he is of the opinion that any further exploration or development of the mineral is not in the public interest, subject to the payment of compensation pursuant to the Mineral Rights Compensation Regulation.
Atrum’s amended statement of claim (link below, at paragraph 79) from March shows that Atrum paid $5.3 million to acquire the assets and claim to have spent $41 million on exploration. If you add another $6 million for reclamation the total amount of compensation would be $52.3 million.
That is the amount to be paid if you apply the cost recovery rules of the Compensation Regulation (s 8(1)(c) of the Act) for the surrender of the Crown leases.
Here is the link to Atrum’s statement of claim :
( because of the file type you’ll need to copy and paste )
https://www.atrumcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Amended-Statement-of-
Claim-2201-10427-Filed.pdf
So how did they get to $142.8 million?
The Alberta government has paid $90 Million more than would be paid by applying the rules under the existing legislation.
Energy Minister Brian Jean says that this settlement is good for Alberta taxpayers.
Public statements by Premier Smith and her ministers earlier this year, contending that opening the Rockies and eastern slopes to coal mining was needed in order to avoid legal challenges, were seized upon by coal companies as validation of their demands for compensation.
Legal settlements now taking place preclude Energy Minister Brian Jean, Premier Danielle Smith and other government ministers from having to testify under oath in a court of law.
It is our contention that is the true reason for these excessive settlements.
Chris Spearman - Spokesperson, Water For Food group
Thanks for reading
Well done Chris! There it is laid out on the table. Maybe that unnecessary payment of $90 million was payback by using taxpayer's dollars for all the donations and pocket filling that Kenney, Nixon, Savage, Robin Campbell and others may have got at the time....a little hush money perhaps?
The UCP are accountable to the Alberta Taxpayer's to explain why this company was overpaid such a monumental amount.
These scoundrels will stop at nothing to pay off in big time dollars, to sleazy Australian coal companies with no assets and little equipment...but just raise the issue of a lawsuit and this government gets overly generous with taxpayers dollars. Is Brian Jean really that incompetent? It would appear so.