The leader of Alberta’s coal petition insists his question could be on the October referendum ballot if Premier Danielle Smith wanted it to be.
Corb Lund, Alberta musician and chief proponent of the Water Not Coal petition, responded on Wednesday night to Smith’s statement made earlier in the day.
“I’m deeply disappointed and shocked by the premier’s decision today. After more than 200,000 Albertans added their names to the Water Not Coal petition, and after months of canvassing by thousands of volunteers, to be told that the petition won’t make the ballot because it allegedly missed a June 1 deadline is unacceptable,” he wrote.
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During an unrelated news conference at Calgary’s Heritage Park, Smith said there wasn’t enough time for the petition to go through the proper process to be added to the Oct. 19 ballot.
“The Forever Canada petition went before a committee of MLAs,” Smith said, “so it’s both parties and then they took hearings, got legal advice and then made a determination about how to proceed with that — and so this particular legislative proposal will follow the same pathway.”
She added Lund’s petition is particularly complicated because it has to do with land rights.
Different deadlines?
In his response, Lund said he personally met with Smith on May 11 about the coal mining question.
“We were literally discussing the wording of my question as it should appear on the ballot, face-to-face. And at no point was any June 1 deadline mentioned,” he said.
“In fact, as our petition was in full swing collecting signatures, the premier stated widely in the media that if Water Not Coal collected enough signatures, our question would be on the ballot.”
Elections Alberta confirmed to CTV News that it was “asked by and informed government on May 14” about the deadline.
Another petitioner says it’s proof the process was “tilted” from the beginning.
“Our signatures had to be in by June 10, and (had the deadline been communicated to our group), we would’ve put the hammer down and (the province) would’ve had them on May 29,” cattle rancher John Smith said.
“I probably can’t use the language I’d like to use right now.”
Lund pointed out in his statement that Smith can, and has, put questions forward without complication.
“If the premier wants to put something on the ballot, she easily can. She has done so multiple times,” Lund said.
“First, with her original nine referendum questions, and then with the current question on separatism. The authority and the choice are available to her. And Albertans deserve to know why that authority was not used in this case, despite more than 200,000 people calling for it.”
Smith said a committee has been tasked to figure out the path forward on the coal mining question.
That group won’t be formed until a month ahead of the referendum.
The petitioners argue that timeline doesn’t line up with the situation’s urgency.
“These decisions need to be made now, not only for the fairness of everybody that signed the thing, but for Albertans in general. It’s even unfair to the coal companies.”
“Let’s get it all on the table and make a decision and see what Albertans want. Let democracy work.”
Environmental impacts
The Alberta Wilderness Association stressed that urgency in a call Thursday.
Kennedy Halvorson says provincial law means the charity can’t comment on the initiative directly, but it can speak to the potential of a delayed resolution.
“As an outside observer, the government has made many changes to the Citizen Initiative Act in the last year that seemed to be unevenly interpreted and inconsistently applied, depending on who the proponent is,” Halvorson said.
“This is time sensitive because industry is still happening. There are existing mines that are expanding and new mines are trying to get started.”
Halvorson points out that development applications are being submitted in the interim.
She believes Albertans aren’t on board.
“People don’t want to see headwaters, habitat and ecosystems degraded with coal mines. They don’t want to see the expansion of the industry.”
CTV News reached out to both Northback Holdings and Valory Resources for this story.
As of publishing, only the former had responded.
Northback’s communication team said in a statement its “Grassy Mountain Project will produce high-quality steelmaking coal for global markets, provide hundreds of millions of dollars in economic benefits and hundreds of direct jobs, while adhering to the highest environmental standards.”
With files from CTV News Calgary’s Stephen Hunt
