“Bogus.”
That’s how musician-turned-anti-coal mining activist Corb Lund described the provincial government’s coal town hall held June 11 in Fort Macleod
“They didn’t allow follow up questions, so they were just able to say whatever they want,” Lund told TheRockies.Life over Zoom. “In my opinion, they just spewed a bunch of lies. It was more about trying to justify a predetermined position than hearing community concerns.”
Premier Danielle Smith was joined on stage with three government ministers, from the energy, agriculture, and environment portfolios.
By all accounts, they got a rough ride from most of the roughly 500 people who crammed the hall.
Damning pollution studies
Premier Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean both talked up the positives of so-called “responsible” coal mining on the eastern slopes while ignoring the negative impacts on water quality and the environment of southern Alberta, which is in the midst of a multi-year drought.
The Premier and her ministers apparently didn’t read government studies into coal mine pollution.
As widely reported here and in mainstream media, the provincial government’s own scientists have published several studies documenting ongoing selenium pollution from old coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass region.
In early June another provincial government study on pollution downstream of the closed Tent Mountain open pit coal mine showed toxic levels of selenium in fish from Crowsnest Lake.
Mountain whitefish and trout had tissue selenium concentrations of between 5 and 26 micrograms (ug) per gram of dry weight, according to the findings.
That exceeds provincial guidelines of 4 ug/g believed to be the limit to prevent reproductive failure in fish.
Selenium problem doesn’t just go away
“The technology doesn’t exist to properly mitigate selenium and other contaminants. Tech and BC (British Columbia) have spent over a billion dollars trying to clean selenium out of the surface water and they can’t do it effectively,” Lund said.
Premier Smith also said the decision in January to reopen the eastern slopes to coal mining was made to spare the public the expense of a lawsuit.
Five coal companies are suing the provincial government for $15 billion in sunk costs and lost revenues.
The lawsuit stems from 2020 when the UCP government scrapped the 1976 coal policy, triggering a flood of coal applications, then reinstated it a year later in a panic after a swift public backlash.
Smith told the town hall that the government has been advised that they’ll lose in court.
Something’s fishy
Lund isn’t buying it.
“Something smells really fishy. When’s the last time you saw Danielle Smith be challenged by a fight and just go, oh, we’re going to lose, we’re just gonna roll over? Like, that’s just not how she operates,” Lund said. “Whatever the judge decides, pay it. Rip the Band-Aid off, and get them the hell out of there because the cleanup is going to be way, way, way more than the lawsuit costs.”
Unprepared and insulting
Chris Spearman, former Lethbridge mayor and founder of the group Water For Food, said the Premier and her ministers were unprepared and with nothing to say that most people hadn’t already heard.
He accused Minister Jean of “insulting” the audience by repeatedly referring to a non-binding plebiscite in Crowsnest Pass. A majority voted in favor of Northback Holding’s Grassy Mountain coal mining project.
But most observers have called the vote a sham because the Australian-backed mine proposal isn’t within the Crowsnest Pass municipal boundaries.
“He [Minister Jean] was seemingly oblivious to the fact that the majority of those in attendance were downstream ranchers, farmers, and residents who were never consulted and did not have the opportunity to vote,” Spearman said in an emailed statement to TheRockies.Life.
“Albertans have valid concerns”
According to Spearman, the insults continued when Minister Jean claimed Alberta would have world class environmental standards for coal mining, even though those standards would be developed with coal companies and not the public and independent scientists.
Furthermore, he said Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz appeared unaware of the four provincial government research papers documenting coal mine pollution in southern Alberta.
“Both Energy Minister Jean and Premier Smith mentioned the $15 billion that Alberta would have to pay if Australian coal mining companies were not permitted to mine for coal, without acknowledging that this situation was created by UCP governments,” Spearman said. “Given the alarming level of incompetence exhibited by Alberta’s top-tier politicians, Albertans have valid concerns.”
