On Nov. 25, 2024, 72 per cent of my neighbours in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass voted yes to the metallurgical coal mine at Grassy Mountain. Turnout was 53.6 per cent, higher than in our last municipal election.
We voted for an economic boost — an anchor industry and the jobs that come with it.
Twelve months later, Corb Lund launched an anti-coal petition that, if it succeeds, could wipe out this project and any future coal development in Alberta. He recently wrote an op-ed calling it a “gamble” we should refuse.
The implication of his petition should worry every Albertan. If we allow referendums to determine the future of individual projects, the precedent will not stop at coal. It will spread to oil and natural gas, critical minerals, renewables and eventually agriculture.
The regulatory process in Alberta already works. A project is studied for years. A community is consulted or, in our case, votes. A regulator makes determinations. Courts hear appeals. Elected officials are supposed to make the final call. At every stage, opponents look to move the goalposts.
I’m not here to question Lund’s sincerity. He has every right to oppose this project. But there is a difference between advocating against a project and using a citizen initiative to override the regulatory process that governs billions in investment and thousands of jobs.
The Alberta Energy Regulator employs subject-matter experts who have studied these projects for years. The federal impact assessment exists for the same reason. My community voted, and seven in 10 of us said yes. None of that should be set aside because one Albertan has decided he knows better.
His facts illustrate the problem. He writes, citing Global Energy Monitor, that “roughly half of all new steelmaking capacity being built today uses technologies that do not require metallurgical coal.” What GEM actually reports is that half of the announced capacity is planned as electric arc furnace, and less than a third of that is under construction.
The International Energy Agency projects global metallurgical coal demand will fall by only five per cent between 2025 and 2030. More than 70 per cent of world steel still requires metallurgical coal.
On selenium, Lund is light on specifics. He raises the alarm without saying which concentrations he expects, which guideline he is referring to or which treatment he assumes will fail.
The most-cited example of selenium concerns in this region is B.C.’s Elk Valley, where coal mining dates back more than a century, and selenium treatment infrastructure was not approved until 2014. That is a legacy problem from a different era of mining, not a feature of new projects.
Glencore’s EVR now reports its treatment facilities are removing 95 to 99 per cent of selenium from treated water, and downstream concentrations have stabilized. New mines start with treatment from Day 1, designed to meet the guidelines that protect fish, downstream water users and the people who drink the water.
