CALGARY — News of Corb Lund’s citizen initiative petition to ban coal mining in Alberta’s Eastern Slopes failing to acquire enough validated signatures to trigger a provincial referendum is being welcomed by industry advocates who say the country singer’s campaign has exposed concerns over investor confidence and the growing politicization of major resource projects.
On Friday, Elections Alberta Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure announced Lund’s “No New Coal Mining in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains” petition fell short of the threshold required to trigger a referendum after the agency completed its verification process.
Although the petition initially contained 196,088 valid signatures, a subsequent verification reduced the estimated number of verified signatures to 172,088 — 5,644 short of the 177,732 required under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act.
In June, Premier Danielle Smith said the petition’s question would likely not be included on the October 19 referendum, saying there wouldn’t have been enough time to include it on the ballot if it had been successfully verified due to an Elections Alberta June 1 submission deadline.
Heather Exner-Pirot, Director of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said that while she wasn’t opposed to referendums, she still thought it was a “slippery slope” to have province-wide referendums on particular resource projects such as Northback Holdings' proposed Grassy Mountain mine in the Crowsnest Pass and Valory Resources Inc.’s Blackstone Project — which were both named in Lund’s petition.
“I don't think that's best practice for governance,” she told the Western Standard, adding that the most affected community — Crowsnest Pass residents — had already had a 2024 non-binding referendum where 72% of voters supported the Grassy Mountain project.
However, Exner-Pirot added the petition campaign still sent a negative signal to investors by suggesting projects that have undergone regulatory review could still be overturned through political campaigns.
“It’s absolutely not ideal from a project certainty point of view,” she said.
“Even just the fact that it got that far, that you could have a proactive activist group put at risk a project that’s gone through the normal regulatory process. We have to have a rule of law. We have to have clear regulatory processes. These are processes developed by democratically elected governments.”
In a statement to the Western Standard, Northback said that it remains committed to advancing the proposed Grassy Mountain metallurgical coal project while meeting all environmental standards.
“Northback has worked diligently to advance a revised mine design that protects water quality in the Crowsnest Pass for the people and wildlife downstream,” the statement reads.
“Albertans support responsible natural resource development, and Northback is committed to developing a steelmaking coal mine that will operate to the highest standards.”
Currently, the new proposal, which will be submitted to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for review, also addresses the mine’s footprint, which will be reduced by roughly 40% from the original plan and will also likely reduce the steel-making coal output to 2.5 million tonnes per year, down from the original target of 4.5 million tonnes.
W. Brett Wilson, a prominent Canadian entrepreneur who has invested in Valory Resources — and has previously had run-ins with Lund on social media over his petition and possible political funding and NDP overlap — said he was pleased the petition failed but stated he was still disappointed by the level of opposition generated by Lund’s campaign.
“I’m pleased that this has gone quieter, but I’m still disappointed that there were as many people as there were objecting to coal,” Wilson said.
“I think there was a lot of misinformation, and my dream and vision is still to amplify thoughtful engagement.”
Wilson said much of the opposition that came from Lund and his supporters wasn’t “overly thoughtful” and that there were many misunderstandings about the industry, including confusion between metallurgical coal used for steelmaking and thermal coal used for power generation, as well as differences between underground and open-pit mining operations.
“He was just anti-coal, and he didn’t seem to care if it was underground versus open pit. He didn’t seem to understand the difference between thermal and metallurgical,” Wilson said of Lund.
When asked by the Western Standard if he thought that the fact the petition still managed to secure over 172,000 verified signatures was a sign that may still discourage investment in Alberta, he emphatically said “no.”
“What is happening in Alberta right now, even with separation noise, is people are investing,” Wilson said, adding that if people were concerned that the independence movement was going to destroy Alberta, they wouldn’t invest in it.
“There's a lot of amplification, and the underlying fact is that the economics of investing in Alberta are still compelling. Our natural gas is cheap, our oil is cheap, our bitumen is cheap, and our electricity is cheap. Things that the world needs are still available here.”
Meanwhile, Rina Blacklaws, vice-president of industry development for the Coal Association of Canada (CAC), said the petition’s failure demonstrates the issue is more complex than campaign messaging suggested and that decisions regarding future metallurgical coal in Alberta should remain within the regulatory framework already set out.
“Albertans had several months to participate in this petition, and the fact that this petition did not reach the required threshold certainly demonstrates to us that these issues are far more complex than the campaign suggested,” Blacklaws said, citing a Janet Brown poll that found 60% of Albertans support steelmaking coal mines in the province, with support rising to 74% when environmental protections are guaranteed.
“I think that Albertans want resource development decisions to be made through that rigorous scientific review system and not through referendum-style campaigns,” she said, adding that she welcomed an open dialogue with the people who signed the petition who were concerned about water quality and the long-term environmental impacts of mining.
“Public discussion about resource development is important, and we welcome that conversation,” she said.
“[However], that debate around coal often overlooks the fact that our practices in this industry are science-based and regulated, highly regulated, and fundamentally different from outdated perceptions.”