Any coal mining on eastern slopes will affect the Hat
Poll
Yes
A prominent landmark near the summit on Mount Charles Stewart is shown near Canmore on Sept. 3, 2020. A local college instructor and biologist says no matter what level of coal mining expansion, and no matter where it goes, the negative effect will find its way here. CP FILE PHOTO
Open pit coal mining set to take place on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains could have serious effects on Medicine Hat’s water quality, a local biologist says.
Brent Smith, an instructor at Medicine Hat College, is launching a new program based around sustainable agriculture for the 2021 school year.
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Rachel Herbert is the fourth generation of her family to ranch in the Porcupine Hills. Her kids will be the fifth. The eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains are visible from the family’s land: rolling prairie carpeted with native grasses where her cattle graze under big Alberta skies.
The Alberta government’s rescindment of a longstanding coal policy, leaving previously protected lands available to open-pit coal mining, has her concerned about her family’s livelihood. Mines could be tucked just behind Plateau Mountain, not far from the Herbert family ranch.
EDMONTON More than 250 people attended a virtual NDP town hall Thursday night to fight a UCP plan that would allow more coal mining in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Last May, the Alberta government cancelled a 1976 Peter Lougheed policy that largely restricted coal development in western Alberta. After a public backlash - the UCP cancelled some leases on Monday - but the government still argues the coal mines can be safe and create jobs. “I’ll do whatever it takes to stop this insanity,” Cam Gardner, a councillor from the M.D. of Ranchland and a former NDP candidate, told the gathering.
Teck corporation open pit mine in Canada. | People’s Voice
Australian mining corporations are already preparing to open-pit mine in the Bighorn area of the Rocky Mountains. Since 1976 Alberta’s Coal Development Policy has guided land use over many aspects of coal development, including open-pit coal mining and coal exploration in some of Alberta’s most environmentally sensitive areas. This policy was developed with extensive public consultation, to create a fair balance between environmental protection, economic development, and the social needs of all Albertans.
But on June 5, Jason Kenney’s United Conservative government rescinded the Coal Development Policy. Recent documents show that at least seven months before announcing the cancellation, the provincial Minister of Environment and the Minister of Economic Development, Tourism, and Trade held conversations with coal companies that supported development in these sensitive areas. The lack of public consultation in parks