Meanwhile, signatures on two petitions on Facebook opposing the UPC government’s pro-coal mining moves surged past 100,000. Last March, at the beginning of the pandemic, the Jason Kenney government quietly revoked the province’s 44-year-old Coal Policy. The visionary policy, created by former premier Peter Lougheed after extensive public consultation, said most of the eastern slopes of the Rockies should remain off limits to mountain-top removal in order to protect water security, wildlife and the area’s beauty. Kenney’s axing of the policy immediately opened up 1.5 million hectares of the Rockies for coal development, including the headwaters of major rivers in the South and North Saskatchewan river basins.