Globe and Mail: Alberta ignoring advice it sought from citizens on Rocky Mountain coal policy
Mr. Trafford said he and the landowners’ group he leads have always believed in Alberta’s regulatory system and laws. But now the rules around coal mining “have entered a state of lawlessness."
Alberta Energy Regulator hard at work, just following orders, mate.
By Emma Graney, The Globe and Mail
A member of Alberta’s coal policy committee says the provincial government is ignoring the will of tens of thousands of Albertans as it develops new rules around mining and is instead leaning on industry to guide its hand.
Bill Trafford was appointed to the coal policy engagement committee when it was established by then-Energy Minister Sonya Savage in 2021. Mr. Trafford is also the president of the Livingstone Landowners Group and worked alongside the four other committee members to gather feedback from across the province to help in the development of a modern coal policy.
The committee spent months consulting with individual Albertans, Indigenous people, communities and organizations to inform its final report and a series of recommendations, which included articulating land-use guidance for coal exploration, reviewing Alberta’s coal-royalty regimes and assessing proposed new projects “with rigorous net benefit tests that include extensive public consultation.”
The committee received 27,000 responses, Mr. Trafford said in an interview Tuesday, the majority of which expressed concerns about coal exploration and development.
But that feedback has been ignored by the government, despite the fact the province commissioned the committee’s work and accepted its recommendations, he said.
“You spend nine months of your life travelling around Alberta, talking to every Albertan you can get your hands on, and what you came up with was fully endorsed by the Premier of the province, the Minister of Energy, the Minister of Environment, every other minister and all the members of the caucus,’” Mr. Trafford said.
“And then to have [Energy Minister] Brian Jean … coming back and saying, ‘Well, I’m here sitting with my coal buddies, and we’re going to decide now how to mine coal on eastern slopes – and we’re going to ignore everything that’s happened in the past.’”
The Alberta government has spent years developing new coal-mining rules after a 2020 decision to scrap a 1976 policy drew a fierce backlash. The public anger led Ms. Savage to set up the policy committee and introduce a series of ministerial orders banning coal development in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Last month, the government announced more changes to coal-mining rules. They are not yet set in stone but would require any new mine to be underground or use technologies that move minimal amounts of overburden – surface materials such as rocks and soil – to prevent selenium leaching into waterways and poisoning fish, wildlife and downstream communities. The new rules would not apply to so-called “advanced” projects such as the controversial Grassy Mountain mine in the Crowsnest Pass, which is being developed by Australian company Northback Holdings Corp.
Last week, Mr. Jean quietly scrapped the ban issued by Ms. Savage and ordered the Alberta Energy Regulator to return to the 1976 policy.
Mr. Trafford said he and the landowners’ group he leads have always believed in Alberta’s regulatory system and laws. But now, he said, the rules around coal mining “have entered a state of lawlessness.”
He cited land-use planning as one example.
At hearings into Alberta’s most contentious coal mine, pleas, tears - and a song
The committee urged the province to undertake thorough regional planning reviews to understand what exactly land can be used for, in order to protect water and the environment. But the government has done little of that work when developing new coal policy, he said.
“We have the legislation that says how to deal with this stuff – they’re just not using it.”
Mr. Jean’s office said in an e-mail Tuesday that the government is taking direct action on seven of the eight recommendations from the coal policy committee.
“Other governments have avoided this issue time after time since the early 1990s. We’re doing the heavy lifting others have avoided,” it said.
As for the move to scrap the mining and exploration bans instituted by Ms. Savage, Premier Danielle Smith told reporters Tuesday that the change was made because her government “is bringing through a better, more robust policy.”
She also cited the fact Alberta is facing $16-billion in lawsuits from coal companies, which are suing the province over the government’s flip-flop on coal policy.
“We have to take that seriously,” she said.
Although the government expects some exploration applications to be filed as a result of the change, Mr. Jean’s office said rescinding the ban “does not open the door for coal development projects hoping to get approval” before new rules come into force.
The government will soon engage with the coal industry to finalize the rules it proposed in December and figure out how to significantly boost royalty rates. It hopes to have a draft for government approval later this year.
But that consultation is solely with industry – not Albertans more broadly, which Mr. Trafford thinks will once again draw people’s ire.
“There’s going to be an outcry of Albertans again. These slopes are just far too important to the province – the water supply, the air, all of those things – to risk it for some Australian coal mining companies.”
The Globe and Mail is now ringing the national alarm about Australian takeover of the Alberta government. Ridiculously cheap subscription sale on now. Let’s support one of the few mainstream media willing to call out the perfidy of the Danielle Smith regime. (Emma Graney, by the way, is Australian. Good on ‘ya, Emma.)