The people behind the Water Not Coal petition say they’re worried a question over coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains won’t be on this October’s referendum ballot.
Premier Danielle Smith has said if enough people signed citizen-led petitions, the question would be voted on in a referendum.
Water Not Coal organizers say they have collected more than 200,000 signatures on their petition calling for no new coal mines in the foothills and mountains where much of Alberta’s river water comes from.
The petition takes specific aim at two potential projects, calling for them to be stopped from getting any green light from provincial regulators.
The two are Northback Holdings’ Grassy Mountain project and Valory Resource’s Blackstone mine.
Corb Lund, the Alberta rancher and country singer who created the Water Not Coal petition, argues coal mining in the foothills threatens the entire Eastern Slopes region and the headwaters that feed the Athabasca, Oldman, South Saskatchewan, North Saskatchewan, Peace and Red Deer river systems.
He dropped off petitions with Elections Alberta last week. The organization has 21 days to verify the petition.
If Elections Alberta verifies the required 178,000 signatures, Smith’s government would be forced to consider passing a law banning new coal mining or send it to a provincewide referendum.
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This weekend, Premier Smith said on her Your Province Your Premier radio show the petition needs to go through a committee process before a referendum can be held.
That process likely means it won’t be on this fall’s ballot — something organizers find unacceptable.
“Now she’s pretending that, through some technicality, she’s not going to put it on the referendum,” said Corb Lund.
“She knows that she can put whatever she wants on a referendum — because she’s done it 10 times in a row.”
Last month, Lund said even if Water Not Coal got the required signatures, he didn’t necessarily trust Smith’s government will act on it.
That said, Lund is not giving up.
“We fully expect to be on the referendum if our signatures are verified. Not only do we expect to be on the referendum, but we expect our question to be used verbatim.”
In a statement, Alberta Justice said Elections Alberta will validate the results no later than July 1 and they will wait to see the process play out.
The province has been wrestling with its coal policy for years.
In 2020, the UCP removed decades-old rules that had protected the eastern slopes of the Rockies from open-pit coal mining. The province began issuing leases.
After a firestorm of public pushback, the UCP reinstated the protections and stopped selling exploration leases.
Katherine Ludwig has more in the video at the top of this story.
With files from The Canadian Press
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