The people of Crowsnest Pass have spoken. In a referendum on November 25, more than 70 percent of residents cast ballots in favour of the controversial Grassy Mountain coal project.
The result will make Australian billionaire and one of the world’s richest women, Gina Rinehart, happy. Rinehart owns Hancock Prospecting. Through its subsidiary Northback Holdings (formerly known as Riverdale Resources and Benga Mining), Hancock Prospecting has been pushing hard for an open-pit coal mine on Grassy Mountain on the eastern slopes of the Rockies near Crowsnest Pass.
It’s essential to put this referendum in context.
One Town’s Opinion
The vote is non-binding. It reflects only the majority of public opinion in Crowsnest Pass, a community with a long history of coal mining that was left economically depressed after the last mines shut decades ago.
Northback Holdings has an office in Crowsnest Pass and has been writing cheques for the ATV club, the skateboard society and other community groups. Northback even offered to drive people to the polling station so they could vote in the referendum. Chequebook diplomacy – it’s the oldest play in the mining corporation’s playbook. A company with pockets as deep as Hancock’s can afford to play the long game and prey on a community’s desperation for an economic silver bullet.
Ahead of the vote, Rinehart’s coal company bombarded the community with promises of jobs and prosperity. Rinehart’s motto was “Make our bank accounts great again.”
In a recent Facebook post, author and conservationist Kevin Van Tighem said: “…big coal companies are old hands at grooming and bribing vulnerable communities. It isn’t the fault of anyone in those communities that they are willing to grasp at the same old glowing and false promises. They need jobs. They need an economy that they can count on. They need hope for the future of their towns and their kids. And many don’t feel they are seeing anyone else stepping up to offer them anything.”
It’s Already Been Rejected
This project should have been dead in the water four years ago. In 2021, a joint environmental review panel of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency rejected the Grassy Mountain coal project. The panel said the mining company overestimated economic benefits and downplayed environmental impacts. It also raised concerns about selenium poisoning of freshwater water downstream from the mine. According to some estimates, the cost of cleaning selenium contamination from Teck Resource’s coal mines in British Columbia has soared into the billions.
Crowsnest Pass Won’t Feel the Environmental Impact
It’s easy for many people in Crowsnest Pass, which has links to coal mining and desperately needs jobs to support Northback Holdings. The community won’t bear the brunt of the environmental impacts of the coal mine. That’s because Grassy Mountain lies within the Municipal District of Ranchland. Water draining from Grassy Mountain ends up in the drought-stricken Oldman River, which feeds the South Saskatchewan River. The ranchers and communities downstream of the proposed mine will feel the hurt, and guess what? The M.D. of Ranchland wholeheartedly opposes the mine.
As journalist Andrew Nikiforuk put it, “The referendum also ignored another problem. Since when does one Alberta municipality that signs a deal with a foreign company get to vote on a project that will be built in another district that is opposed to the scheme? In what democracy are such practices allowed?”
The M.D. of Ranchland is going to the Alberta Court of Appeal to challenge the AER’s decision from February 2024 to accept Northback Holdings’ application for exploratory coal drilling on Grassy Mountain as an “advanced” coal project. This is why legal experts have criticized the AER’s decision and have put the AER in the hot seat.
Other Communities Not On Board
Following the referendum in Crowsnest Pass, this headline appeared atop a story in the industry journal Mining.com: “Gina Rinehart closer to opening contested coal mine in Canada.”
Not so fast, says Chris Snodgrass, the Mayor of High River. He and his council sent a letter to Premier Danielle Smith urging her to place little importance on the referendum results.
“The letter was intended to just make sure that Premier Smith understands that the referendum, with her decision-making, should hold very, very, very little weight,” Snodgrass told CBC News. “Because these are mining projects that affect all of Alberta … that water that gets polluted goes down the Crowsnest River into the Oldman.”
However, in 2022, Premier Danielle Smith promised her supporters in the Pass that if they voted in favour of the mine in a referendum, she would push the project forward as premier. They have, and now the question is, will the Premier use this referendum to fast-track Grassy Mountain? Or do the views of the rest of Alberta matter?
The Takeaway
There are important takeaways from all of this. Crowsnest Pass needs an economic boost, that’s for sure. And people there are desperate for work. But a pocket of strong local support for a return to the coal mining boom days does not equal a decision to allow a new open pit mine on the sensitive eastern slopes, far from it. This is an Alberta-wide decision. And most Albertans are against the mine.
Instead, the provincial government has made a mess of this file, and that’s not just environmentalists talking. Legal experts and the courts are now questioning the AER’s handling of Grassy Mountain.
Albertans concerned about water quality and nature on the eastern slopes find themselves up against a huge Australian conglomerate content to buy and bully its way to a mine approval. That’s concerning for democracy and due process. These are our resources and our decisions.
Hancock Prospecting might be playing the game of upstanding corporate citizens through its shell company, Northback Holdings. They’ll promise the moon when it comes to environmental protection and standards. But if it were that easy, Teck Resources in BC wouldn’t be sitting on a mountain of liability and a selenium problem without an affordable fix.
There will be a local employment boom, no doubt. But in the end, Northback will dig and run, making fortunes. Then, its Australian parent company, Hancock Prospecting, will move on to other projects and communities and quickly forget about Grassy Mountain. Albertans will be left holding the bag, just like they are for orphaned wells, and Crowsnest Pass will sink back into depression, wondering when the next big thing will come along.
