Investor presentations signalled the Kenney government aimed to open protected lands to open-pit mining.
Tyee contributing editor Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist whose books and articles focus on epidemics, the energy industry, nature and more. SHARES Documents show Australian firms seeking open-pit coal mining leases in Alberta got signals protections to sensitive lands would be lifted, clearing the way. The public only found out months later, the day the Coal Policy was rescinded.
Photo: Shutterstock.
Australian mining firms seeking to strip-mine metallurgical coal in Alberta’s eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains knew well ahead of Albertans that the government was planning to rescind a law that stood in the way.
Alberta gives inquiry into oil and gas critics another extension to complete report - Canada News castanet.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from castanet.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
How Alberta’s energy and environment ministers misled on open-pit mining plans.
Tyee contributing editor Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist whose books and articles focus on epidemics, the energy industry, nature and more. SHARES Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage with Premier Jason Kenney at a 2019 press conference. Neither made a public appearance in the face of a public backlash against the government’s easing of coal mining.
Photo by Jason Franson, the Canadian Press.
Last week Alberta’s government tried to hide political reality by issuing statements implying the “passion” of citizens had convinced it to back off its efforts to bring open-pit coal mining to a vast, ecologically-vital portion of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Tensions over the UCP government’s move to open the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies to coal development have bubbled over recently, as well-known Alberta country…
Article content
Tensions over the UCP government’s move to open the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies to coal development have bubbled over recently, as well-known Alberta country singers added their voices to a growing chorus of opposition to the plan and a group of landowners went to court to seek a judicial review in hopes of forcing a policy reversal. More than 100,000 people have signed two petitions opposing the expansion of coal mining in the province. Here, Postmedia answers five common questions about Alberta’s coal policy, and how we got to this point.
1. What is the change that the UCP government made, and why are people upset?