CALGARY — Corb Lund has vowed to continue his campaign against new coal mining in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains and is considering a court challenge after Elections Alberta’s decision to discard thousands of signatures from the citizen initiative petition on Friday.
The country music singer said that a lawyer representing the Water Not Coal campaign — who served as a scrutineer during the signature count — had identified numerous concerns with the verification process that could form the basis of a legal challenge.
"After being briefed by my lawyer/scrutineer that was in the room during the count, I have some real issues with the way this was handled,” Lund said in an official statement Monday.
“Albertans have spoken loud and clear, delivering their voices to government via this petition about their firm opposition to coal development in the headwaters of our Rockies. We can’t allow thousands of Albertans to be disenfranchised and are now reviewing legal options."
He added that his legal team now has 30 days to file a judicial review and put their complaint before a judge.
Water Not Coal submitted more than 200,000 petition signatures before the June 10 deadline to Elections Alberta headquarters.
On Friday, Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure announced the petition had failed to meet the threshold required under Alberta's Citizen Initiative Act.
The campaign needed approximately 178,000 verified signatures — equal to 10% of the ballots cast in the last provincial election — to trigger a province-wide referendum.
While Elections Alberta initially validated 196,088 signatures, 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.
Until the issue is resolved, Lund is now calling on Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government to impose a moratorium on all new coal mining activity.
“This is no place for coal development in our mountains, and we will continue to advocate for legislation that protects the eastern slopes of the Rockies for good,” Lund stated.
Earlier on Monday at a joint press conference with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Premier Smith said that she would like to continue working with Lund to address his concerns surrounding coal development in Alberta.
“I've had a chance to meet with Mr. Lund and I told him that if this petition was not successful, let's work together on addressing some of the concerns that have been raised.”
