Alberta country music artist Corb Lund expected to hand in anti-coal petition

Country musician Corb Lund has delivered his anti-coal mining petition and says thousands of canvassers delivered more than enough to get it approved.

On a rainy Wednesday afternoon, cheered on by supporters, he hauled the papers from the back of a horse trailer to Elections Alberta’s Edmonton office.

“It’s been a very wide swath of the Alberta public who have said very clearly to the government that they don’t want irresponsible foreign coal mining inside the headwaters of our rivers in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains,” he said.

Lund announced this week that his team had collected more than the 178,000 signatures it needed to get the province to take action, but he didn’t share a final tally.

Country musician Corb Lund has delivered his anti-coal petition and says thousands of canvassers delivered more than enough to get it approved.

On a rainy Wednesday afternoon, cheered on by supporters, he hauled the papers from the back of a horse trailer to Elections Alberta’s Edmonton office.

“It’s been a very wide swath of the Alberta public who have said very clearly to the government that they don’t want irresponsible foreign coal mining inside the headwaters of our rivers in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains,” he said.

Lund said he expects Smith’s government to honour the wishes of those who signed, but he doesn’t trust them to address their demands with effective legislation right away.

He says the campaign surpassed that mark after a province‑wide volunteer effort involving 3,000 canvassers, thousands of signing events, and extensive community outreach.

He says the success of the petition goes to show how much Albertans care about headwaters and protecting the Rocky Mountains.

The petition was authorized to begin circulating in February and required 178,000 signatures by Wednesday to meet Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act threshold.

The petition takes specific aim at two potential projects, calling for them to be stopped from getting any green light from provincial regulators.

The two are Northback Holdings’ Grassy Mountain project and Valory Resource’s Blackstone mine.

It asked signers to endorse prohibiting new coal mining in the Rockies because it needlessly risks harming the environment, particularly water. Proposed projects that are under the crosshairs include Grassy Mountain and Blackstone, warning of risks to headwaters that feed major river systems.

The petition takes specific aim at two potential projects, calling for them to be stopped from getting any green light from provincial regulators.

The two are Northback Holdings’ Grassy Mountain project and Valory Resource’s Blackstone mine.

“They shouldn’t be changing our question.”

“We’re watching them like hawks,” he said.

Lund reiterated Wednesday that he doesn’t believe the coal companies’ lofty promises of jobs, especially given increasing automation, nor does he believe promises of strict environmental stewardship.

He added that his petition gathered support from across the province, but the Crowsnest Pass referendum was limited only to some residents who won’t be the most affected by mining.

“They cherry-picked a group of people who want the jobs who will not suffer the effects of the mine,” he said.

Elections Alberta has 21 days to verify Lund’s petition.

Justice Minister Mickey Amery’s office, when asked to comment about next steps earlier this week, said the government will wait to see how the process plays out and for the final signature count from Elections Alberta.

Lund has been a prominent critic of renewed coal exploration since 2020, when the province briefly removed long‑standing protections on the Eastern Slopes and began issuing leases. After widespread public backlash, the government reinstated the rules and halted lease sales. It has since announced plans to ban mountain‑top removal and new open‑pit mines, though regulations are still being finalized and some advanced projects remain in the approval queue.