Albertans celebrated a couple of years ago when HBO decided to launch their prestigious zombie project, The Last of US, in Wild Rose Country.
Locals aren’t celebrating the latest foreign zombie project being proposed.
Zombie Project Still Alive
Imagine a situation where a worker gets hurt so badly at work that they lose their head. The doctors at the hospital say the person has passed away, which makes sense. The coroner, also says the worker is dead. Again, this makes sense.
But, the worker’s boss and the Workman’s Compensation Board (WCB), find loopholes to insist that the person is still alive. Their self-serving claims are ridiculous.”Look at the person, they still have hands and feet, so they should be able to keep working!”
The idea of pretending the dead are actually still alive is silly.
Like the boss and the WCB, Danielle Smith’s government is working with Australian coal company, Northback Holdings, to resurrect a project most Albertans believe was long dead and buried – the Grassy Mountain Coal Mine.
Pronounced Dead Twice Already
The controversial Grassy Mountain open-pit coal mine on the Eastern Slopes of the southern Rocky Mountains has already been turned down twice.
Albertans thought the issue was permanently put to rest.
But alas, the government and Northback are trying their best to raise the mine from the dead.
In case you missed the details of the death; here are the Coles Notes:
- In 2020, then-Premier Jason Kenney’s government opened up coal mining on the Eastern Slopes, allowing corporate entities like Northback Holdings, owned by Australian billionaire Gina Rhinehart, to mine coal on Grassy Mountain, among other areas.
- Most Albertans were outraged, and the public pushed back, citing concerns about huge clean-up bills, ruined water sources, loss of biodiversity and the destruction of tourism and recreation opportunities.
- Opposition came from local landowners, municipal leaders, the tourism industry, scientists, ranchers, celebrities and everyday Albertans.
- Through united efforts, the Grassy Mountain project was rejected by regulators in 2021, followed by an order from Alberta’s Energy Minister in 2022 that “no new applications” for coal exploration be accepted.
- The Grassy Mountains Mine was judged not in the “public interest” in 2021. It remained included on a list of so-called “advanced projects” exempted from the 2022 Ministerial Order that banned coal development in the Rockies.
Northback’s Grassy Mountain project was done and dusted. A win for the people! The body was buried.
Back from the Dead?
So, what did the 2022 Ministerial Order, banning coal development in the Rockies actually mean?
It means that the mine could not be pronounced dead because, just like in our opening scenario, even though the body has no head, it still had arms and feet and “could work.”
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 both the federal and provincial governments turned it down for not being in the public’s interest. They insist that the Energy Regulator shouldn’t consider the new applications.
But the AER just announced that it “has accepted the … applications from Northback and has determined they should be decided by a panel of hearing commissioners.”
Alberta’s Energy Minister Brian Jean responded, “Once a project is considered an advanced project, it remains as one regardless of the outcome of regulatory applications submitted before it was declared an advanced project.”
In effect, once a project is called ‘advanced,’ in the eyes of the government, it’s immortal and can never die.
Northback is happy to play along with this charade.
Albertans Ready to Fight the Third Coal War?
Albertans are ramping up to fight once again.
Katie Morrison from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) says her organization is contemplating legal action against the regulator’s decision.
Canadian musician Corb Lund, who was instrumental in rallying support amongst Albertans against coal mining during the first two rounds of the Grassy Mountain fight, is back on centre stage for this third round of the coal fight.
Corb Lund met with Brian Jean, Alberta’s Energy Minister, to discuss the coal mining issue, and Corb came away shaking his head in disbelief.
“I met with Brian Jean to discuss the coal issue a couple of months ago. And I was alarmed by how little he knew,” Lund said in an email to The Canadian Press.
“I knew more about the coal issue than he did, and I’m just a guitar player, not the Minister of Energy. It’s chilling to me that ill-informed politicians are making decisions about our water.”
“How many times do Albertans have to say no to these foreign coal companies?” he wrote.
Poll after poll has shown that most Albertans are against coal mining on the Eastern Slopes.
Coal is a product many jurisdictions, including Alberta, have decided to phase out in the transition to clean energy.
So, what does a renewed interest in approving coal mining while simultaneously issuing a moratorium on renewables say about Danielle Smith’s government’s priorities?
Maybe the government operates based on the famous quote by John Kenneth Galbraith, “Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.”
Does the government believe that Albertan’s memory is so short we have forgotten that we pronounced coal mines dead?
Apparently so.
