Environmental group received millions in government funding while opposing Alberta coal projects

CALGARY — A federally funded environmental organization which has spent years opposing coal development in Alberta’s Eastern Slopes and promoting broader anti-coal activism in the province is raising questions about how taxpayer-funded advocacy is being used with regard to Alberta’s natural resources. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) — a national conservation group — with chapters in northern and southern Alberta, has received millions of dollars over recent years while simultaneously organizing anti-coal campaigns and advocating for permanent restrictions on coal mining in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. According to CPAWS’ financial disclosures, the organization generated roughly $23.37 million in revenue in 2025, with just over $7 million coming from government grants. .Among the publicly listed grants for 2025 is a $750,000 contribution from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The grant is listed as “Achieving 30% land protection by 2030; supporting civil society capacity and engagement.” .In 2022, Canada signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which included the goal of protecting 30% the country’s lands and waters by 2030. At the time, CPAWS applauded the agreement, with Sandra Schwartz, the organization’s National Executive Director, saying CPAWS was “committed to continuing our work with indigenous nations and communities, and the private sector in the months to come to ensure effective and equitable implementation of this plan in Canada.” Earlier in 2022, CPAWS had released a report entitled Roadmap to 2030, in which it explicitly recommended that the Government of Alberta “commit to a permanent prohibition on new coal mining and exploration on the Eastern Slopes.” Another grant from ECCC of $294,802 for a “strategy for protecting 30% of Canada’s land by the end of 2030” was given to CPAWS in 2023. .Numerous CPAWS strategy materials have continuously called on Alberta to permanently prohibit coal mining in the Eastern Slopes, while the organization has repeatedly organized petition drives, MLA pressure campaigns, coalition-building efforts, and public mobilization campaigns opposing coal projects in the province. One CPAWS campaign urged Albertans to demand the province protect the Eastern Slopes from “any future coal mine development,” while another called for Alberta to prohibit all new coal exploration and development across the former 1976 Coal Policy area. CPAWS’ own annual reporting also states the organization continued working with communities, partners, and other grassroots groups to oppose new coal exploration and mining. The overlap between CPAWS’ federally funded “civil society capacity and engagement” work and its anti-coal activism has become more politically sensitive following the anti-coal citizen initiative petition campaign spearheaded by country music singer Corb Lund and his Water Not Coal campaign. .EXCLUSIVE: Corb Lund's anti-coal campaign connected to NDP-linked media and organizing agency.Lund has repeatedly framed his campaign as a non-partisan, grassroots movement. In March 2025, CPAWS’ Southern Alberta (SA) chapter released a statement saying Lund, CPAWS SA executive director Katie Morrison, and Livingstone Landowners Group president Bill Trafford had “banded together” to challenge Premier Danielle Smith, Energy Minister Brian Jean, and then-Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz to publicly debate Alberta coal policy. Lund has also appeared in a Facebook advertisement for CPAWS Northern Alberta promoting an anti-coal documentary entitled Dry Horizons: Stewarding a Future for Southern Alberta’s Water. .Previously, the Western Standard reported that Water Not Coal’s advertising and canvasser organizing campaigns had ties to Point Blank Creative, a left-wing media agency headquartered in Vancouver, which has done extensive work with NDP-aligned campaigns. One of Point Blank’s senior strategists who was working on canvasser organizing for Water Not Coal is Becky Best-Bertwistle, a former conservation engagement coordinator for CPAWS SA who was heavily involved in the organization’s anti-coal campaigns. .In a post by Best-Bertwistle titled Albertans Are Ready to Move on From Coal, she stated that “CPAWS Southern Alberta has been leading in this fight on many different fronts — from our formal legal intervention in the Joint Review Panel process on the Grassy Mountain Hearing, to facilitating community engagement in the development of the new Alberta coal policy.” In a statement to the Western Standard, CPAWS Southern Alberta denied any involvement with Water Not Coal, saying it “has not made any contribution in support of the Corb Lund Citizen Initiative, engaged in initiative advertising, or third-party advertising, during the petition period."The organization also added that, "it remains “in full compliance with the Citizen Initiative Act and the related Regulations.”Still, questions remain about the growing overlap between federally funded environmental organizations, advocacy groups, coalition-building campaigns, and Alberta’s organized anti-coal movement — particularly as some taxpayer-supported groups continue advocating against major resource development projects in the province.While there is currently no public evidence that federal funding flowed directly into Water Not Coal itself, the expanding network of relationships between environmental organizations, campaign strategists, former advocacy staff, and anti-coal activism is likely to intensify scrutiny over how taxpayer-supported organizations participate in politically contentious natural resource debates in Alberta.The Western Standard reached out to ECCC but had not heard back by the time of publication.

Environmental group received millions in government funding while opposing Alberta coal projects

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