A Foothills County councillor, who voiced her concerns about potential coal mining in the Eastern Slopes, is cautiously optimistic after the provincial government’s announcement to reinstate the 1976 coal policy.
“I think it is good that they are going to pause,” said Division 2 Coun. Delilah Miller. “I think they have to go one step further and go out and re-engage the Alberta public for more consultation. There are a lot of things in the 1976 coal policy that aren’t relevant today.
“We've changed a lot of our environmental requirements.”
She would like to see something with more teeth than a policy.
“I would like to see them create a new law and bring it into legislation,” Miller said. “So, in the future they won’t be able to just dismiss a policy and change it at will.
“They will have to re-engage the people again before they can change the law.”
The 1976 policy, made under former premier Peter Lougheed’s leadership, had included a land-use classification system dividing Alberta into four categories, and Category 2 lands – which include parts of the Canadian Rockies and the foothills – had limited exploration and underground mining permitted.
On its website, the Province had stated the policy is obsolete due to regulatory, policy and planning advancements in the industry, indicating all projects would flow through the Alberta Energy Regulator review process.
The Province rescinded the 1976 policy in the spring.
Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage announced on Feb. 8 the government is reverting back to the 1976 policy – thanking Albertans for sending a clear message to the government.
“An important part of being a responsible government is to admit when we have made a mistake and fix it, and that is what we are doing today,”she said at a press conference.
She said the 1976 policy would be reinstated.
“We recognize that rescinding the (1976) policy has caused tremendous fear and anxiety that Alberta’s majestic Eastern Slopes would be forever damaged by mountain-top and open pit coal mining,” Savage said. “Let me be clear, this will not happen in Alberta.”
She stressed the government will hold significant public consultation when developing a modern coal policy.
Miller said some of the proposed Category 2 sites are west of Foothills County.
“You have a government that is sending a lot of mixed messages,” Miller said. “On one hand you are not even allowed to drive past the Kananaskis gate at Highwood Pass because of animal migration, but on the other hand you're allowed to blow up a mountain and scatter wildlife everywhere.”
She said had there been consultation with the public the government would have heard a loud and clear, ‘No.’
“From the letters I have received from my residents they don’t want any open pit mining done in those sensitive areas because of the water concerns, because of the wildlife concerns," she said. “They will never be able to remediate those mountains and return them to their natural state… I’m not against coal mining, we’ve had it forever in Alberta and it is essential to our economy, but in the right place.”
Okotoks Coun. Tanya Thorn made a motion in January which resulted in the Town sending a letter to Premier Jason Kenney, Savage, Environment Minister Jason Nixon and Highwood MLA RJ Sigurdson, which stated council’s concerns over the rescinding of the 1976 policy.
She was pleased with Savage’s announcement on Feb. 8.
“This is a great news story,” Thorn said about Savage’s announcement to return to the 1976 policy. “We need to commend the government for seeing the error in their ways and being able to walk this back.”
She said she heard overwhelmingly from Okotoks residents against any proposed coal mining.
She credited High River Mayor Craig Snodgrass for raising awareness in the Okotoks area and beyond about the issue.
Councils in the towns of High River, Okotoks, Black Diamond, Turner Valley, the Village of Longview and Foothills County all made motions to write letters of concern in regards to rescinding the 1976 policy.
“The actions that the government took today, to me indicates it is listening,” she said. “But the learning here is there shouldn’t have to be this kind of public uproar to get governments to do the right thing.
“And consultation is a piece. There was absolutely no consultation on this.”
Consultation was one of her largest concerns.
“My underlying issue is I don’t know enough about coal-mining to say whether or not this is a problem,” Thorn said. “But I do know they (the government) never came and talked to me about what it might mean to my water quality or quantity.
“The lack of consultation doesn’t allow councils, citizens and residents to make important decisions… If they rescinded the policy because everything in it is protected by new environmental laws, there should be no problem to consult and show how that is occurring.”
She said opposition to the government killing the 1976 policy was unifying.
“When you’ve got your Indigenous reserves speaking, you’ve got your ranchers, farmers, city urbanites, environmentalists all on the same side, it’s a real good indication that something is really wrong with what you have done,” she said.
She said one of her concerns is that there are six leases that will be allowed to proceed at this point.
“I don’t quite know what that implication means,” she said. “But for the moment, I am taking the rollback to the policy as good news.”
She also stressed the coal policy issue, which the Okotoks council wrote the letter about, and the Grassy Mountain project are separate issues.
“Grassy Mountain has been ongoing for the last six years or so now,” Thorn said. “It is in a federal and provincial review now and there was significant public consultation around that.”
Grassy Mountain is a proposed open-pit mine projected to produce 93 million tons during its 25-year lifespan.
It would be located on 6,918 acres about seven kilometres north of Blairmore in Crowsnest Pass.
Turner Valley council voted at its Feb. 1 meeting to send a joint letter with Black Diamond endorsing putting back the 1976 policy and to be part of any future talks on coal mining.
Deputy Mayor Jamie Wilkie expressed his concerns about protecting the Sheep River after a map of Category 2 sites were presented to council.
“To see the maps and see where the water courses are running, it is clear to from my view of the map that tributaries that do flow into the Sheep would be covered by the Category 2 lands, which was my suspicion,” Wilkie said.
He was also upset with the lack of discussion so far in the matter by the provincial government.
“This is essentially a change to land-use policy with no consultation whatsoever with municipalities or affected land owners in the area,” Wilkie said. “This would be for me the equivalent of us changing all of the zoning regulations in town to allow somebody to put in, the example I put up on Facebook was a giant tuna canning facility right next to your house in a beautiful neighbourhood and not even asking your opinion on it.”
He said municipalities developed things like water treatment plants that were built under the 1976 restrictions. As a result, he said, anything that affects water should be done with consultation from municipalities.
Mayor Barry Crane said it is the environment which concerns him.
“You rip a top off a mountain you aren’t putting it back,” Crane said. “And water goes where it wants to go. Water will cut a channel right through a mountain and deposit all downstream…
“Peter Lougheed was right, put it (the 1976 policy) back.”
He said he felt for families who may depend financially on potential coal mining.
In an interview on Feb. 9, Crane said going back to the 1976 policy was the right decision.
"There was definitely public outcry around the issue to the lack of public consultation," Crane said. "It was an easy one to support."
Highwood MLA RJ Sigurson was unavailable for comment as of the time of publication.
