Alberta municipality joins ranchers fight against hearing on proposed coal mining in Rockies

A rural municipality in southwest Alberta is now joining landowners to fight plans for a hearing on proposed coal mining in the Rockies.

The Municipal District of Ranchland wants to reverse the Alberta Energy Regulator ruling that Northback Holding’s plans for Grassy Mountain are exempt from a government order blocking development.

The district argues the regulator should not have heeded a letter from Energy Minister Brian Jean, suggesting it accept the company’s application for Grassy Mountain. The district argues the minister overstepped his authority and the regulator wrongly allowed him to influence its decision.

In a statement to CityNews, Jean’s officer says the purpose of the letter “was to provide clarity on which projects were classified as an ‘advanced coal project'” under a ministerial order.

Northback has applied for three licences on Grassy Mountain near the community of Crowsnest Pass. The company wants approval for exploratory drilling and water diversion as part of its plans for an open-pit steelmaking coal mine.

Ranchers have been fighting the development for the last four years, along with the help of country stars Corb Lund and Paul Brandt.

Laura Laing and her husband John Smith are ranchers in the area and feel the government and the company are being underhanded, but they also feel personally betrayed by Jean.

The couple say they hosted Jean during the UCP leadership race, who they claim told them face-to-face there would be no coal development in the area.

“We’re disappointed in the minister of environment on this,” Laing says. “We just haven’t heard anything.”

The project has previously been denied under another name by federal and provincial environmental reviews. Alberta has enacted a ministerial order blocking all coal development in the Rockies, save for those considered “advanced projects” that have submitted a project summary to the regulator.

“The application should never have been accepted, it’s not an advanced project,” says Laing. “There hasn’t been a coal development there for over 50 years.”

“What a waste of Albertans money and time,” she says.

With files from The Canadian Press