CALGARY — A former Alberta government official who helped write the province’s 1976 Coal Development Policy says it was never intended to prohibit coal mining in the Eastern Slopes, which has been a major flashpoint in the current coal debate.
David Luff, a former Assistant Deputy Minister of Energy who joined the Alberta government in 1975 and helped develop both the 1976 policy and the 1977 Eastern Slopes Policy, said the coal policy was never intended to prohibit coal development but instead was created to match then-Premier Peter Lougheed’s vision of prioritizing Alberta’s headwaters while allowing mining to proceed in appropriate areas under strict environmental conditions.
"It wasn’t solving a problem, it was [about] providing a policy that would deliver on the implementation of a vision for the Eastern Slopes,” Luff said.
“It was critically important to protect those headwaters so that the water would be there in perpetuity. The coal policy was meant to do that.”
Throughout the battle over coal development, the 1976 policy has often been portrayed as a document that effectively prevented new coal mining in the Eastern Slopes until Jason Kenney's UCP government rescinded it in 2020.
Country singer Corb Lund’s Water Not Coal campaign has repeatedly pointed to the rescinding as the moment Alberta reopened the Eastern Slopes to new mining and has argued the policy protected headwaters for decades, making it a part of the campaign’s foundation to permanently ban new coal mines in the region.
However, historical records reviewed by the Western Standard suggest the policy was never designed to eliminate coal development altogether, as some believe, but established where mining could occur and under what conditions.
The policy divided Alberta into four land categories: Category 1 prohibited exploration and mining in parks, wilderness, and other sensitive lands; Category 2 imposed strict limits on surface mining while allowing some exploration and underground mining where impacts were acceptable; and Categories 3 and 4 allowed development subject to environmental safeguards, reclamation, and regulatory approval.
Luff’s interpretation was shared years later by Alberta's NDP government under Premier Rachel Notley.
In a May 24, 2016, letter to Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) CEO Jim Ellis regarding a proposed Ram River Coal Corporation project, then-NDP energy minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd wrote that a proposed surface coal mine on Category 2 land would proceed through Alberta's normal regulatory review process.
"I encourage you to advise Ram that, like all coal development projects in Alberta's foothills and mountains, a surface coal mine application on coal Category 2 land would be reviewed through the normal regulatory processes," McCuaig-Boyd wrote, adding that the 1976 policy stated that surface mining on Category 2 land "would not normally be considered," but noted that regional planning had since been completed, infrastructure had been developed, and any proposal would still have to undergo an environmental impact assessment.
"The proposed approach is consistent with the intent of the 1976 coal policy that environmental protection measures need to be in place before new development is allowed," she wrote, adding that regional planning processes "are not intended to prevent developments that make sense."
The Coal Association of Canada (CAC) said the interpretation is often lost in today's public debate.
“There is certainly a gap between how the policy is often discussed today and what it actually said,” CAC stated, arguing the policy wasn’t a moratorium on all development.
“It is our view — and likely the view of most Albertans — that modern coal mining projects should be assessed and vetted individually by the regulator on their capacity to meet environmental and regulatory obligations.”
Energy Minister Brian Jean's office also argued that history has been overlooked in the ongoing political debate and noted the NDP invited coal companies to apply for surface mines on Category 2 lands.
"When the NDP invited foreign coal companies to apply for surface mines on previously protected Category 2 lands in 2016, they also moved to do away with category protections altogether,” the minister’s office said in a statement.
“After Albertans voted them out, the NDP flip-flopped and have invested in a campaign to end all coal mining in Alberta. This is despite the success of the 1976 Coal Policy, which successfully managed coal development and environmental protections in Alberta for four decades.”
Following widespread backlash over the 2020 rescinding of the 1976 policy, the UCP government reinstated it in 2021 and said it was working on a modern replacement that would go further than the original by prohibiting mountaintop removal, preventing new open-pit mines in the foothills and Rockies, and requiring new mines to be underground or use technology that minimizes selenium entering waterways.
During a July appearance on Ryan Jespersen’s podcast, Lund said his campaign was seeking a complete prohibition on new coal developments in the Eastern Slopes, regardless of mining method.
"We want no more new coal mining of any kind anywhere in the Eastern Slopes. We don't care if it's open pit. We don't care if it's underground... We don't want any mining, it's very simple," Lund said.
The most prominent proposal in the debate is Northback Holdings’ proposed Grassy Mountain mine near Blairmore in the Crowsnest Pass, which Water Not Coal has framed as a potential precedent that could open the door to additional coal developments throughout the Eastern Slopes.
The site is not located on an undisturbed mountain. Coal mining began there in 1913 and ended in 1961, when West Canadian Collieries shut down the mine. The site is predominantly located on Category 4 land.
A 2021 federal-provincial review panel found the original proposal was not in the public interest, citing water quality and fish habitat concerns, but Northback has since submitted a redesigned proposal roughly 40% smaller, with a multi-tier water management strategy aimed at preventing selenium contamination.
While Luff disputes how the 1976 policy has been characterized in today's debate, he also believes Alberta should not simply return to the status quo and says the biggest difference in the last fifty years has been the advances in environmental science and the discussion around selenium.
“Back in the seventies, I think it would be fair to say that we did not have a good understanding of selenium,” he said, adding that while mining practices have improved since that time, Alberta still lacks a formal selenium discharge standard for coal mines.
“Industry doesn't have the clarity and certainty of what the government's policy is when it comes to the discharge of selenium, and that's a huge gap.”
Luff said the lack of a provincial standard for both regulators and project proponents just creates more uncertainty, which was a concern that featured prominently in the recommendations of Alberta's 2021 Coal Policy Committee, which called for a modernized coal policy guided by regional planning under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act rather than relying solely on project-by-project decisions.
The committee also did not recommend a blanket prohibition on coal mining, instead urging the province to establish a broader planning framework before considering individual developments.
“I would be recommending to the premier to put a pause of activities in the Eastern Slopes as they relate to coal until a final Coal Industry Modernization Initiative comes out from the government,” Luff said, arguing that such a pause would not only provide greater clarity for government but also for the coal industry.
“Not knowing what the government's standard for selenium discharge will be puts the company at a significant lack of information about what their application should be. Putting a pause on activities until that new standard is set is actually beneficial to Northback.”