Nobody likes to hear, “I told you so.”
Following an important court decision, that’s precisely what the provincial government is hearing from thousands of hard-working Albertans concerned about coal mining and protecting critical headwaters on the eastern slopes of the Rockies.
In late August, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) made a bad call and may have even broken the law when it allowed Northback Holdings to apply for an exploratory drilling permit in the mountains near Crowsnest Pass as an “advanced coal project.”
This game-changing ruling confirms what legal experts and regular Albertans have been saying all along.
The Backstory
To catch you up, Northback Holdings is owned by billionaire Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest citizen.
She’s known for filing lawsuits to get her way.
In 2015, Benga Holdings (the company owned by Rinehart) filed an application for the Grassy Mountain Coal Project to the AER and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
After nearly six years of careful consideration, a Joint Review Panel (JRP) rejected the project.
This panel doesn’t make decisions lightly. In a 680-page report, the JRP found, among other things, that the project “is likely to result in significant adverse environmental effects on surface water quality, westslope cutthroat trout and their habitat, whitebark pine, rough fescue grasslands, and vegetation species and community biodiversity.”
The JRP said that Benga overstated the economic benefits and underplayed impacts on the environment and Indigenous rights.
In summary, the Grassy Mountain Coal Project was deemed not in the public interest.
That was the end of it. Or so you would have thought.
But the Australian billionaire brought the mining proposal back under the guise of Northback Holdings, another shell company. Last year, the new company submitted a new application for exploratory drilling on Grassy Mountain, and the AER accepted it for consideration as an “advanced coal project.”
Technically, an “advanced coal project” is one in which a developer “has submitted a project summary to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for the purposes of determining whether an environmental impact assessment is required.”
Opponents argued that the project lost its “advanced status” when the federal and provincial governments rejected it because it was not in the public interest.
Nigel Bankes, a resource law professor at the University of Calgary, called bullshit in a lengthy blog post titled, The AER Does Not Have the Jurisdiction to Consider New Coal Applications for the Grassy Mountain Coal Deposit.
Confusing?
If you’re confused, you’re not the only one. Alberta’s policy around coal mining over the past half dozen years is as clear as mud. You need a law degree to understand all the bizarre twists and turns.
But here’s the long and short of it.
According to Bankes, media comments from the province following the Northback application suggested that the AER “has already formed the opinion that Northback’s applications fall within the advanced coal project exception – even though the AER has yet to issue a reasoned decision on the point.”
“That’s a huge problem,” said Bankes.
He was right. And so were the majority of Albertans opposed to coal mining in the sensitive watersheds.
The Alberta Court of Appeal’s recent ruling allows the Municipal District of Ranchland to formally appeal the AER’s decision to consider exploratory coal drilling on Grassy Mountain.
That’s the good news.
Resuscitating the Dead
The bad news is that despite this ruling and a pending appeal, the AER plans to forge ahead with public hearings on Northback Holdings’ application.
Meanwhile, Northback has been writing cheques left, right, and centre for groups in Crowsnest Pass, hoping to build more support in the only community that seems to support a big coal mine in these critical and drought-stricken southwestern Alberta headwaters.
Journalist Andrew Nikiforuk accused Danielle Smith of inserting herself into Alberta’s “messy coal politics” while campaigning in Crowsnest Pass for the UCP leadership in 2022. She allegedly told a gathering that she would consider a referendum on Grassy Mountain coal mining.
Campaign rhetoric and promises are to be taken with a grain of salt.
What’s more concerning is the behaviour of the AER, as unmasked by the Alberta Court of Appeal ruling.
This government Regulator, which is supposed to be unbiased, is looking more and more like a puppet of industry and a ruling party determined to bring a dead coalmine back from the grave.
Albertans are tired of fighting this project. It’s a waste of public money and resources.
It’s time to move on.
Since this coal mine has already been rejected twice, the province should leave it where it lies—six feet under.
