Hundreds kept out of meeting on controversial Crowsnest Pass coal mine

By Alexandra Noad, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Premier’s Coal Town Hall event held on Wednesday evening at the Fort Macleod and District Community Hall was described as “a gong show” by many in attendance, with several being left outside, including the media.

Hundreds of people lined up down the street hours before the doors opened, many of them protesting the new coal policy the province recently approved that will potentially allow an Australian company to open a mine on Grassy Mountain in the Crowsnest Pass.

Prior to the event, musician Corb Lund, who has been very vocal against the coal policy since it first surfaced in 2020, said he was tired of having to continue protesting.

“It’s annoying to be fighting the same exact coal mine that the provincial government and the federal government and the courts turned down a number of times already,” said the award-winning country music artist. “But here we are.”

While many were vocally opposed to the coal policy, there were some supporters in attendance.

Bonnie Castellarin, a founding member of Citizen’s Supportive of Crowsnest Coal in the Crowsnest Pass, was one of the attendees who not only was able to make it inside, but also to vocally share her support of the mine to the premier at the mic.

Castellarin said many southern Albertan municipalities, including Lethbridge, Coaldale, Crowsnest Pass as well as many others, were founded on coal.

“I grew up in the Crowsnest Pass, I grew up below a coal mine and I’m nearly 74 years old,” said Castellarin. “I’m still here and that was back in the day before environmental constraints and things like that.”

She added that there would be no chance she would be in support of reopening the Grassy Mountain mine if she thought it was going to have a negative effect on her community.

Many community members questioned the government’s organization and promotion of the event, as they either found out about it through social media or via the grapevine.

“The only reason I knew about it is because my mom heard from a friend,” said one community member. “You’d think the premier is coming so close to you, you would know about that.”

Lund also commented on the last-minute timing of the event, saying it was typical of the UCP government around the issue of coal.

“Everything the government seems to do around coal is last minute,” Lund pointed out. “When they make a policy change, it’s on a Friday night before a long weekend at five o’clock, I don’t know if it’s on purpose, but most of the announcements and decisions around this whole issue seem to be very last minute.”

Right before the event, media were allowed to participate in a scrum with Premier Danielle Smith behind the community hall, but in plain view of protesters.

During the scrum, Smith said she wanted attendees to know that the province intends to extract the coal from Grassy Mountain in the most ethical and responsible way possible.

“I hope what happens this evening is people know we took to the recommendations of the Coal Policy Committee and implementing a new policy, that we are going to be banning any new open pit mines and mountaintop removal, making sure best available technology is used to manage water and where possible, start using some of the new underground mining and techniques to avoid disturbing the surface,” said Smith.

She added that coal is necessary to forge steel, which is used in items such as farm equipment, windmills and other renewable resources tools. And since the election of Donald Trump as president of the U.S., Canadians realize they need to be self-sufficient.

“We’ve got to find new markets,” said Smith. “We’ve got to make sure we’re developing our resources and we’ve got to do it in the most responsible way possible, because we’re the best at it in the world.”

Within a couple of minutes, a handful of vocal protesters had gathered around, kept at a distance by security. Smith then turned to them and asked for them to stop.

“You got interviews without me interrupting your interviews,” she told the crowd. “I’m just asking for the same courtesy.”

Smith then spoke about researching the high selenium levels in the Crowsnest lake and reassuring the public that it’s safe for consumption.

“We’ll be doing additional follow up research to see if we can find out the reasoning for the bioaccumulation in the fish, but we were encouraged to see the level of selenium in the water is well below what the recommended level is for drinking water standards.”

Smith also admitted the reclamation of the former mine at Grassy Mountain should have been handled better when it closed in 1960, adding that if it were to be reopened, the reclamation would be done properly.

“I think we should be concerned that 60 years ago, it was not reclaimed to a standard we would accept today and the company as part of developing the resource would also reclaim the project to a higher standard. I think that would be good for the environment and something we should encourage.”

She recommended municipalities against coal mining should follow the Crowsnest Pass’s example and hold a referendum on the issue.

Following the interview, media were denied access to the meeting itself. Organizer said the hall was already at capacity and allowing any more inside would violate fire regulations.

Many citizens expressed shock at hearing the media weren’t inside covering the meeting.

“That is just absurd to me because it’s for everybody, especially the press to cover this meeting and to get as much actual evidence about it as possible,” said one person. “So the fact that anyone is excluded or not let in or allowed an opportunity to come in and speak shows exactly the intensions of the event.”

Another mentioned how the community hall is just two blocks from an ice arena, which has a much higher capacity.

There were a couple of people were live-streaming parts of the meeting from inside the hall, and there were many disapproving groans from the crowd following the responses from the panel.

After the event, it was clear people on both sides were unhappy with the result.

One citizen who was able to go in halfway through the meeting noted that many questions were being redirected rather than answered, which added fuel to the already fiery audience.

“I think a lot of chaos in there came from the fact that people weren’t getting their questions answered cut and dried, they weren’t getting responses they liked,” the person said.

He added that, while he understood there were a lot of people who wanted to have their voice heard, the panel did a poor job of answering the questions.

Like many others, he noted how poorly the event had been executed, adding that he believed it was designed to be that way.