Albertans need to step up and protect our water
By Lethbridge Herald on October 29, 2025.
Doreen Barrie
For the Herald
The Alberta government will be paying millions of precious tax-payer dollars to two Australian coal companies, Evolve Power and Atrum Coal, which claimed de facto expropriation due to changes in provincial coal policy. We can expect further payouts to others that have sued the government on similar grounds. (That companies can “punish” a democratically elected government in this way, is disturbing. But that’s a topic for another day.)
When Premier Smith lifted the ban on new coal exploration in the Rockies in January, her justification was that she wanted to protect taxpayers from future lawsuits. Leaving aside the fact that the UCP created the problem in the first place, we know nothing about what transpired in closed-door discussions with these companies.
What is well-known is that investors have lobbyists, deep pockets and the means to wear opponents down and get what they want. Contrast this with the slender resources available to landowners, Indigenous groups, NGOs and residents of the town in which the project is located. Despite opposition from these groups and rejection of a similar proposal by a joint federal-provincial panel, the Alberta government has been cowed by these powerful forces. Clearly, this is a David and Goliath battle.
The situation sounds hopeless except for one thing: the tool the Smith government has (unwittingly) provided to Albertans: the Citizen Initiative Act. This enables citizens to trigger a referendum on an initiative on a range of matters. Recent amendments reduced the threshold necessary for a petition to be approved, to a paltry 177,000 signatures – a relatively easy target. What better way to protect the headwaters of our rivers than by seizing the opportunity the Act provides?
Alberta has only 2.2 percent of Canada’s water and it is used intensively: irrigation which already consumes 71 percent, is set to expand by 20 percent. A combination of factors, including climate change, retreating glaciers and droughts are straining supplies. Dr. John Pomeroy, UNESCO chair in mountain water sustainability, has pointed out that in southern Alberta, typical water flow rates are at around half their normal volume.
Given these threats to the quantity of water, is it wise to jeopardize its quality as well?
A major issue with mining metallurgical coal is the danger posed by selenium. There is ample evidence of these dangers from the Elk Valley in BC. where it has been polluting the water for decades. Northback Holdings is submitting a revised, scaled-back proposal to mine on Grassy Mountain. To mitigate selenium risks, it promises to implement “a multi-layered water management strategy” to treat water and keep waste rock out of critical habitats. However, there are no proven methods of dealing with the toxic effects of this mineral, so Northback’s claim is dubious. Selenium occurs naturally in rock. However, when the rock is broken up, it exposes a greater surface area to be eroded by air, snow, and water. This allows selenium to leach into streams and rivers. Great piles of “waste rock” in the Elk Valley are doing just that, causing problems downstream.
For Australian mining companies, Alberta is an attractive place to do business because of the bargain-basement royalty rates. In Queensland for example, home of some of these companies, royalty rates for the mining industry are tied to the price of coal and are aimed at capturing more value when coal prices rise. At prices below $100 per tonne the royalty is just 7 percent but it rises to 40 percent when prices are over $300 per tonne.
The regime in Alberta is much more favourable for investors: only 1 percent until the mine has recovered its costs and then a modest fixed rate of 13 percent of net revenue.
It is, therefore, easy to see why these organizations would like to do business in this province. What is baffling is why our provincial government would support an industry that can render water unsafe for all users downstream of the mines.
As the Smith government is so relaxed about threats to our precious but dwindling water supply, Albertans need to step up to the plate. That is why a simple referendum question asking whether the headwaters of the Oldman River should be protected, would give citizens a chance to register their views on this matter.
Doreen Barrie is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Calgary.
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We already don’t have enough water to meet demand. The rivers in the south are already unhealthy. We can’t expand irrigation, despite the plans to add a (publically funded) $reservoir$ to the Belly River (dams only redistribute the timing of flow, not the amount of water). And we can’t afford to pollute what’s left. Seems simple enough.
Solution: preserve water retention on the eastern slopes (restrict clearcut logging); restrict industrial pollution upstream (eg. mountaintop removal coal mining); preserve grasslands and wetlands; reduce cap on irrigation withdrawals (no irrigation expansion). And this is just to maintain the status quo of ecological health, which is already challenged. Really, we should be working to restore what has been damaged.
This government seems to like foreign exploiters better than Albertans.
This article is noteworthy for what it omits: it ignores that the NDP opened Category 2 lands to mining, spent $1.4 billion shutting coal power with no real environmental gain, and now hypocritically opposes Alberta steelmaking coal while supporting foreign-owned mines in the Bow Valley and BC.
It also dismisses that 72% of Crowsnest Pass residents voted in favour of the project and that polls show 70% of Albertans support responsible coal mining.
Easy for a comfortably tenured University of Calgary academic to preach opposition while others fight for real jobs and balanced policy.
Excerpts from the AER Joint Review Panel Executive Summary June 17, 2021
“Based on our assessment, we conclude that the project is likely to result in significant adverse environmental effects on surface water quality, westslope cutthroat trout and their habitat, whitebark pine, rough fescue grasslands, and vegetation species and community biodiversity.”
“We also find that the project is likely to contribute to existing significant adverse cumulative environmental effects on westslope cutthroat trout, little brown bats, grizzly bears, and whitebark pine”
“We find that the project would result in low to moderate positive economic impacts on the regional economy, but that Benga did not consider some risks that could reduce the magnitude of these positive impacts.”
“We find that the project would result in the loss of lands used for traditional activities, and this would affect Indigenous groups and their members who use the project area.”
“Benga’s assessment of risk from exposure to dust in general and coal
dust in particular is not conservative, relies on limited baseline data, does not consider the effects of coal dust as a complex mixture, and does not consider the combined risk of coal dust and dust from other sources. The potential for increased health risks associated with dust and coal dust is therefore subject to some uncertainty”
“The project will have a moderate positive economic impact on the Crowsnest Pass area, and a low economic impact on the rest of Alberta and Canada.”
“We also find that the project would have a significant adverse effect on physical and cultural heritage for
the Káínai, Piikani, and Siksika. ”
https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/documents/p80101/139408E.pdf
https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluations/proj/80101/contributions/id/48472?culture=en-CA
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/08/10/World-Wont-Buy-Second-Rate-Alberta-Coal/
In addition to IMO’s comment:
– Alberta’s coal policy was rescinded by the UCP (though the NDP did fumble beforehand.
– Prime Minister Harper directed the phase out of coal generation
– Canada is phasing out blast furnaces that require coal for steelmaking. They are transitioning to green processes.
– the couple of thousand votes in the CNP don’t speak for the hundreds of thousands downstream.
– the Brown poll questions had caveats – it was designed for maximum spin amounting to disinformation. Albertans remain strongly against polluting our air and water for a sunset industry.
– finally, you should have more respect for people who are smarter than you.