The Alberta government’s decision to review a public engagement report that gathered input for a new coal policy is being seen as a way to manipulate the impact of the report’s findings.
The report should have been immediately released to the public when it was submitted by the committee, said Ian Urquhart, executive director of the Alberta Wilderness Association.
“It just simply presents the story of what Albertans think about coal, and there’s no reason for that not to be out there, except if (Energy Minister Sonya Savage) wants to try to control the agenda, try to control the pace of the game, try to control if and when information is going to be released.”
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Savage announced the Coal Policy Committee had submitted both the engagement report and a separate final report containing recommendations on Dec. 29.
“The government will take the necessary time to review the reports’ findings and recommendations carefully before they are released publicly,” she said in a statement.
Urquhart said he understood why the final report was withheld. The provincial government needs time to digest the recommendations as it develops a new coal policy.
“But there’s absolutely no good reason for not releasing the engagement report right away.”
It reminded Urquhart of the nearly three-month delay in the release of the Allan inquiry report into alleged foreign-funded, anti-Alberta energy campaigns, which found no evidence of legal wrongdoing by environmental groups.
However, it is important to note the Coal Policy Committee’s reports were only received on Dec. 29, said Jennifer Henshaw, senior press secretary to the Office of the Minister of Energy.
“Alberta Energy will work closely with other departments and agencies to determine next steps and timelines,” she said in an email Jan. 6. “The reports, and the government’s response to the recommendations, will be released as soon as possible once a thorough review of the findings has been completed.”
Two years ago, Savage rescinded a coal policy for Alberta dating back to 1976 without public consultation, opening much of the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains to potential open-pit coal mining. Due to widespread opposition, the policy was reinstated in 2021 by Savage, with the committee formed in March.
The Eastern Slopes contains the watershed for the Saskatchewan River system, which is relied on by everyone from farmers to communities across much of the Prairie provinces. Urquhart said open-pit coal mining would not only risk contamination from selenium, but also involve allocating water to wash coal at a time when water scarcity could become the new normal due to climate change.
The original deadline for the public engagement report to be submitted to the provincial government was Oct. 15, but it was extended to Nov. 15, which was the deadline for the final report. The deadline for both reports was subsequently extended to Dec. 31.
