Premier’s duty is to Alberta, not Australia
By Lethbridge Herald on January 31, 2025.
Dear Editor,
An open letter to Premier Danielle Smith:
Greetings. I write to you today to express both concern and disappointment as to the recent turnaround in provincial policy pertaining to coal mine exploration and development in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains. And here I speak as a ratepayer in the MD of Pincher Creek as well as a voter on the provincial electoral rolls. I operate a modest farm and ranch operation on the northern banks of the Oldman River just a few miles downstream and downwind of the Crowsnest Pass. As such I maintain a keen awareness of any and all looming threats to my livelihood and to that of my neighbours, be they legislative, environmental or economic. I must say that in this instance I can tick all three of those boxes.
So, here’s a bit of absurdist humour to add to the menu. The other day on the radio I heard the head honcho of Montem Resources, an Australian company with interest in metallurgical coal extraction in the Pass, threatening legal action against the Government of Alberta for perceived financial damage resulting from the 2022 reinstatement of Peter Lougheed’s 1976 Coal Policy by Minister Savage in the then Kenney administration – following widespread public outcry at its previous surreptitious abandonment I might add. Now, I don’t wish to be unkind, but I think you can agree that there are few things more rattling to Canadian ears than the speech patterns of a full-blown, back-country Aussie in full foghorn mode. Here’s what this corporate kangaroo was saying, in full twang (and you’ll have to use your imagination here, Madam Premier. Picture Crocodile Dundee in suit and tie, frothing and ranting):
“This decision was unlawful and I demand restitution for being denied the right of access to my property!” Following which, I suppose, he went off to put another shrimp on the barbie.
What’s wrong with this picture? Well, given a general high regard in Alberta for the overarching concept of property rights, we might fairly take issue with this foreign national laying claim to a resource which is clearly and fundamentally the property of the Crown in right of the people of Alberta. What is being offered to these licence-holders is, in fact and by constitutional intent, merely access to a commodity, wholly owned by the people of Alberta, for the purposes of extraction and commercial exploitation. They do not own it. The very idea that a trans-national entity can own property which is held in perpetual trust by the Crown for all Albertans now and into the future is preposterous. Any inference to that effect must be quashed directly and emphatically. Certainly our elected representatives in the provincial government must act as the front line against any such encroachment of terminology and the law. We already gave away too much to the coal and railroad barons of a hundred years ago. This hemorrhaging of our birthrights must stop.
The other problem element here, apart from the blowhard Australians, including the boorish Gina Rinehart who is the über-boss of Northback Holdings, is the seemingly arbitrary reversal of a previously quite clear determination on the part of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) pertaining to submissions put forward by mining proponents, principally Benga Mining (now Northback), under the Joint Review Panel (JRP) which delivered its report to the AER in June of 2021. In its then findings, the AER quite clearly and thoroughly debunked both the economic promises and the environmental assurances as put forward by Benga, citing them as being poorly calibrated and respectively over- and under-estimated to a gross extent. In short, what the AER was saying was that Benga’s promises of riches to the region and to provincial coffers, and its assurances of ecological integrity were both groundless and worse, spurious and deceitful in nature.
And so what has changed? I fully realize that threats of lawsuits may be a certain motivating factor, but we have to assume that the UCP government of the day must have factored in that possibility when it made its previous reversal. It can’t be said that this is a credible factor in this now astonishing reversal of a reversal!
I urge you, therefore, to draw a deep breath and gird thy loins accordingly, and recall that your primary duty is to all the good folk of this province who place their trust in you daily to affect the best possible outcomes for this and all future generations – not to mention our hundreds of thousands of neighbours on down the drainage line of the Oldman/Saskatchewan River system in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Do not panic in the breach. Three years ago a vast and diverse swath of Albertans came forward with a resounding ‘no’ to strip coal mining all up and down the Eastern Slopes. It was one of the most compelling and focused manifestation of public intent, across all sectors of society and ‘downstream’ business interests, that we have seen in a long time. This craven reversal flies in the face of all that.
Your path is clear. Be forthright. Don’t cave. You will be reckoned to have come to your senses for putting the brakes on and steering back towards the high road on this file. Reverse this reversal of a reversal. Blame it on the hapless Brian Jean – nobody will mind. Yes, protect our water and our fish and our farmers. Speak for the future, for all our kids. Just say no to strip coal mining. It is, in every conceivable respect, the right thing to do. It’s bad business, plain and simple. There is simply no credible argument to be made in its favour, only shallow, greedy and expeditious short-termism, not to mention a rather unbecoming pandering to power interests. Remember your Wildrose roots, Madam Premier – it is always to the grassroots that respect and deference are owed.
Phil Burpee
Pincher Creek
13-12
Along the same lines, I would like to see this government own up to the mistake of unilaterally dropping the 1976 Coal Policy without public consultation. Neudorf was recently quoted trying to pass it off as the decision of the ‘previous government’ – disingenuous at best, as he was part of that ‘previous government’. Let’s begin with an apology.
And how quickly these representatives are now rolling to appease the litigant! It has the distasteful appearance of collusion. Especially as the UCP are already raising the spectre of a tax impact – they certainly know the Pavlovian bell to ring when they want something.
A better government would evaluate the cost risk of a lawsuit against the cost risk of contaminated water and its impacts on the agri-food industry that uses that water to irrigate its crops and finish its cattle. It would be my guess that Alberta’s $10+ billion ag industry, employing almost 70,000 people is not only more important economically, but more useful (coal is a dying industry). Once that penetrates the UCP brain trust, then defend Albertans in court and protect our water.
This risk to the agri-food industry is real, and serious. The irony of a right wing agri-food UCP voting base is not lost on many of us. Is this why we’re not hearing a loud hue and cry from these voters? While realizing it takes time and effort to change one’s political belief system, what would the waiting be for? When the damage is done? Is this voting base believing that this UCP government would not jeopardize their industry? It would seem to be a no-brainer that these voters should be warning off this UCP government in a proactive manner.
As long as these Reformers continue to pretend they are Conservatives that’s all they care about that’s how stupid they are, isn’t it?
They had no business reopening this can of worms after Lougheed protected us did they, but that’s what they do destroy everything Conservatives have created for the good of the people, that’s always been their mandate, hasn’t it?
great presentation!
dear neudorf and smitty, and good brian jean…you restrict coal mining on the grounds of how it will undermine first nations health and culture, environmental pollution, water sustainability (and at the least based on toxic and shortage of water concerns), no?
and, however did a govt come to “entirely” give up the right to what is of the land belonging to the people? that will have been done without a mandate, no matter how many fools held seats under the con name. that was never a part of the expressed govt plan during any election campaign and the people never had a say.
at worst, create a fund that returns whatever were the original purchase costs to the original companies involved, with normal interest added covering that time frame – and then let the whole lot of those that later bought from the original cos all fight it out for their share from that fund.
Phil Great letter we couldn’t have said it any better. The true Conservatives in my world are sick and tired of watching these Reformers pretending they are Conservatives deliberately destroy what our hero Peter Lougheed created for the good of the people.
The disgusting part is why did so many Rural Albertans support them? Are they so naive they don’t know a True Conservative from a damn Reformer, and can they explain to us how we are going to get out of this “Horrific Financial Mess” as Lougheed called it?