CALGARY — Corb Lund has issued a formal request to Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP government, calling for an immediate moratorium on all new coal developments, approvals, expansions and exploration in the Eastern Slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains.
The country singer — who was the proponent of the Water Not Coal citizen initiative petition, which failed to reach the signature threshold required to force a province-wide referendum in early July — warned Smith in a letter last week that “renewed coal activity poses serious and irreversible risks to Alberta’s headwaters, fisheries, ranch lands and downstream communities.”
He went on to state that the Alberta government must “pause all coal-related decisions until the courts, independent science, and a full public review have completed their work.”
“I have nothing to gain from this except keeping the water and ranchland intact,” Lund wrote, adding that the stakes for the Eastern Slopes — the source of drinking water for millions — remain “urgent and unresolved.”
The request comes after Lund filed an application for judicial review with the Alberta Court of King’s Bench in July, challenging Elections Alberta’s process and handling of the Water Not Coal petition.
The application asked the court to examine the procedural fairness of decisions made during the petition validation process.
Lund’s campaign needed roughly 178,000 verified signatures — equal to 10% of the ballots cast in the last provincial election — to trigger a province-wide referendum.
During the validation process, Elections Alberta initially validated 196,088 signatures.
However, a statistical verification process reduced the estimated number of verified signatures to 172,088, leaving the petition 5,644 signatures short of the required threshold.
Five former Elections Alberta employees who resigned while the signatures were being reviewed have also raised questions about that process.
In a separate letter sent to the legislature’s Standing Committee on Legislative Offices, the former employees alleged that internal disruption, frequently changing procedures and inadequate oversight compromised the integrity of the validation process.
“We are reaching out to you about our concerns regarding the integrity of the petition review process — specifically the lack of oversight, inconsistent processes, and procedures that put into question the integrity of the final Water Not Coal petition validation results,” the employees’ letter reads.
“We feel the barrage of process changes jeopardized the integrity of the validation process and the identity and reputation of Elections Alberta.”
Along with an immediate moratorium on coal development, approvals, expansions and exploration, Lund’s letter also calls for independent, peer-reviewed environmental impact assessments and a transparent process for “evaluating existing approvals that may not have fully considered cumulative watershed impacts.”
Furthermore, Lund is requesting a meeting with Smith to discuss evidence-based measures to protect watersheds, fisheries, ranch lands and the economic health of the Eastern Slopes region.
“This is such an important issue for Alberta’s future that I have no moral choice but to remain committed to it,” Lund said.