The citizens of Crowsnest Pass will vote in a late November plebiscite asking: “Do you support the development and operations of the metallurgical coal mine at Grassy Mountain?”
Northback Holdings Corp, a shell company owned by Australia’s richest citizen Gina Rinehart, has been trying to get a controversial coal project on Grassy Mountain approved for years.
The proposal has been widely opposed by ranchers and many other Albertans concerned about protecting water on the Eastern Slopes.
A 2021 public opinion poll found that 77 percent of Albertans were concerned about coal mining’s impacts on rivers and water.
That same year, a Joint Review Panel, made up of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, rejected a Grassy Mountain mine application from Benga Mining, also owned by Rinehart. The JRP ruled that the mine was not in the public interest and that the company exaggerated the economic benefits and downplayed the environmental impacts of the open-pit mine.
But the Australian billionaire wasn’t finished. Rinehart came back with Northback Holdings, which applied to the AER for exploratory drilling permits on Grassy Mountain in 2023.
The AER accepted the application for review as an advanced coal project, which triggered a storm of protest, condemnation from legal experts, and a court challenge.
This past August, the Alberta Court of Appeal gave the Municipal District of Ranchland the green light to ask the court to scrap the AER’s classification of Northback’s proposal as an advanced coal project.
If Ranchland successfully appeals, it could kill the Grassy Mountain project for the second time.
That’s where it stands today.
The Economic Dilemma: Can Coal Revitalize Crowsnest Pass?
The project has one pocket of vocal support – Crowsnest Pass, where coal mining is part of the town’s story.
This southwest Alberta community of 6,000 has been slumping since the last coal operation in the area shut in 1983.
Since then, Crowsnest Pass has been looking for an economic saviour, and tourism hasn’t filled the gap that some people hoped it would.
Carmen and Troy Linderman, the couple behind Citizens Supportive of Crowsnest Coal, said the group has 1,000 members.
The Lindermans believe coal mining is the only opportunity to diversify the local economy, create jobs, and give people a reason to live there.
“It’s beautiful. We grew up here, and our children grew up here. They enjoy the outdoors and the rivers, and so have we our entire lives. However, we’ve been waiting 50-something years for tourism to take off, and we’re still waiting,” Troy Linderman said in an interview.
He said Crowsnest Pass will never be a Banff or Canmore.
Coal mining supporters point out that Grassy Mountain isn’t pristine, and the site is littered with junk from a 60-year-old abandoned coal mine.
But a lot has changed since that mine shut. Drought has put a lot of pressure on the critical watersheds that southern Albertans rely on, and we know much more about the impact of coal mining.
What’s at Stake: The Crowsnest Pass Plebiscite
Sarah Elmeligi, the NDP’s environment and protected areas critic, understands why some Crowsnest Pass locals want to turn back the clock to the boom days of coal mining.
But she called coal “a very short-term injection of cash, and then you’re back where you started.”
Coal mines in BC’s Elk Valley have generated economic prosperity but at a substantial environmental cost in the form of toxic run-off from mine waste and tailings. The price tag for cleaning up selenium contamination from Teck’s Elk Valley mines is estimated at more than $6 billion.
Emeligi also said that being “another Canmore” shouldn’t be the goal and that Crowsnest needs a unique tourism strategy and a new vision.
The November 25 plebiscite results will not be binding; they will only express the community’s opinion on coal mining.
