In a January 15 letter to the Chairman of the Alberta Energy Regulator, Environment Minister Brian Jean lifted the ban on coal exploration on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains that was put in place after intense public pressure on Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party (UCP) in February 2021.
Hard to say whether the fact this came to light while the world’s attention is “laser focused,” as UCP governments love to say, on Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States in Washington D.C., but it’s certainly convenient for Jean.
Alberta environmentalist Kevin Van Tighem described Jean’s decision as “a declaration of war on our province, our children and our future. This must not stand!”
As readers may recall, back in May 2020, Kenney’s government unexpectedly rescinded the Lougheed Government’s coal policy, which had been in place since 1976, to open the Eastern Slopes to coal mining.
Public protest immediately ensued, including in rural agricultural communities normally considered to be part of the UCP’s loyal heartland. At that point, energy minister Sonya Savage reluctantly restored the Lougheed-era ban on exploration.
Since then, foreign coal mining interests have been beavering away – a process described through a detailed timeline by journalist Andrew Nikiforuk published by The Tyee earlier this month. Jean’s letter signals a success for the coal-mining industry and a disaster for Alberta.
“This means our headwaters, native grasslands, the last of pristine landscapes and wildlife corridors are open for coal business,” Save the Mountains Alberta said in a social media post . “The entirety of the eastern slopes will be reopened, rendering them susceptible to potential coal development, with the exception of National Parks.”
Questioned by journalists, a UCP spokesperson tried to pass this off as mere housekeeping, but this explanation defies credulity.
The letter “means that projects that had already got exploration permits, those permits are effectively now reinstated, and exploration can start again on those properties,” Nigel Bankes, University of Calgary professor emeritus of law, told the CBC. “The Eastern Slopes is open again for coal activities.”
Why now, wondered Van Tighem, the well known conservationist and former superintendant of Banff National Park, in a social media post. “Nothing has changed about the science: Stripping coal out of those Eastern Slopes will impair our watersheds and contaminate our water with selenium for generations, potentially crippling the ag-foods industry. It will destroy habitat for legally protected species at risk including bull trout, cutthroat trout, limber and whitebark pine and others. It will turn some of our most beautiful mountain and foothills landscapes into rubble-filled holes. It will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of tax dollars when the mines are abandoned. It flies in the face of public opinion.”
“This was neither a rational nor a principled decision,” Van Tighem asserted. “The government was facing big lawsuits because of how they originally bungled the issue, and they think this will give them political cover because happy coal companies don’t sue. … It’s just about dodging responsibility.”
Biologist Lorne Fitch, an occasional contributor to this blog, offered an interpretation of Jean’s letter – passed along by Van Tighem: “I have now rescinded the directions made earlier, subject to previous rescindments, now unrescinded, which lifts suspensions except where suspensions are still suspended complying with directions under a previous rescinded direction and subsequently protecting the environment except where it will not be protected, subject to periods of suspension, which may, or may not continue to be suspended unless the rescinding of previous direction provides different direction. To the coal industry I say and let me be clear, fire up your bulldozers, get digging and let’s forget about those nasty court challenges over billions of dollars of lost revenue. Let’s just be friends, OK?”
Sounds about right.
Despite its timing, expect this story to get bigger in coming days and weeks.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Trump’s on-again, off-again Canada tariff threat is on again
It only took a couple of hours yesterday before Postmedia political commentator Don Braid had to pull a fawning column proclaiming tendentiously that freshly inaugurated U.S. President Trump hadn’t gone after Canada with huge tariffs after all, thanks to the wisdom and courage of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
“Premier Smith’s efforts helped avert tariff war Liberals invited,” cheered the headline on Braid’s effort, which went on to say, “it’s rather sad to feel relief when U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t mention Canada in his inauguration speech.”
I can’t tell you more, because that drivel went down Postmedia’s commodious Memory Hole faster than you could say Winston Smith, as soon as Trump made it clear that big tariffs will be coming Canada’s way after all, unless we let him annex the place, and maybe even then. I can only quote as much as I did thanks to the wonders of Google.
While he signed pardons for January 6 insurrectionists or something yesterday, Trump told reporters that “we are thinking in terms of 25 per cent on Mexico and Canada because they are allowing vast number of people, Canada is a very bad abuser also, vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in.” Expect something bad by February 1, he said.
Well, it would have been embarrassing if anyone had actually had a chance to read the column. If by chance anyone captured this saw it, do feel free to send a screenshot along.
Meanwhile, the Alberta government is not as nimble as Postmedia, and Smith’s embarrassing official statement still lingers, stating that “Alberta is pleased to see that today President Donald Trump has decided to refrain from imposing tariffs on Canadian goods at this time as they study the issue further.” Sucking up, obviously, will get you nowhere.
It’s clear from this, though, that whatever happens, Smith and the UCP will try to take credit for anything good that arises from the situation, which they have helped to make considerably worse by dividing the otherwise united response of Canada’s premiers, and blame the Liberals for the crisis, which is entirely the making of their hero Donald J. Trump.
Pathetic, really. Although not as pathetic as Smith’s complaint to CBC reporter Adrienne Arsenault from the Capitol-adjacent rooftop of the Canadian Embassy in Ottawa that her feelings were hurt by Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s criticism of her refusal to get on board with the other premiers.
“I’d never go out and say we should stop selling aluminum to Americans as a way to make a point to hurt Quebec,” she claimed. “And it hurt me that they felt they could make that same argument and that Alberta should sacrifice our interests in order to try to advance some kind of trade war.”
Cry me a river. I’m sure many other Canadians feel the same.
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