Question 1

How do I sign the petition?

Accepted Answer

The petition must be signed in person with a registered Canvasser. You cannot sign it online. We have thousands of signing events happening across the province. Visit waternotcoal.ca/sign-the-petition to find a location near you.

Question 2

Who is behind Water Not Coal?

Accepted Answer

Water Not Coal is led by country singer and proud Albertan Corb Lund, along with a coalition of rural and urban Albertans–including hunters, anglers, farmers, and ranchers who are concerned about the impacts of coal mining on the environment and their livelihoods.

Question 3

Will you share my information with anyone else?

Accepted Answer

We take your privacy seriously and will protect any information you share with us. We do not share any personal information with any third party.

Question 4

Why do you need my phone number?

Accepted Answer

To help communicate with you. Your phone number is optional — we'll primarily reach out via email.

Question 5

How can I help?

Accepted Answer

There are three ways you can help: 1) Sign the petition — find a location where you can sign in person at waternotcoal.ca/sign-the-petition. 2) Collect signatures — volunteer as a canvasser at team.waternotcoal.ca. 3) Make a donation — support the campaign at secure.waternotcoal.ca.

Question 6

What about oil and gas? What about cattle and agriculture? They cause problems too.

Accepted Answer

With 8 billion people on the planet, everything we do has a cost. But the risk/reward ratio of allowing coal mines at the headwaters of our rivers where we get our drinking water from is one of the biggest ecological threats Alberta faces.

Question 7

I thought this issue was already solved by the government.

Accepted Answer

That’s what the government would like us to believe, but for years they have repeatedly responded to public backlash by trying to fool Albertans. They pretend to ‘fix’ the problem in a cosmetic way but leave large loopholes for the foreign coal companies.

Question 8

Can’t we just ‘trust the process’?

Accepted Answer

No, because the ‘process’ is deeply flawed. The regulations are not nearly strong enough and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) that oversees these projects has demonstrated over and over that they value the interests of industry over the interests of regular Albertans.

Question 9

Doesn’t Alberta have the ‘toughest environmental regulations in the world’?

Accepted Answer

No, we don’t, although this is a common refrain from industry. They say that Alberta has world class regulation and that we have the strictest standards available around resource extraction and this is simply not true. Our regulations are quite lax and unsatisfactory when compared to many, many other countries.

Question 10

Why are you not criticizing BC for mining coal? They mine a lot of it just over the border.

Accepted Answer

We don’t live in BC, we have no control over what BC does. We are Alberta citizens and we are trying to stop coal mining here in Alberta that affects our water here in Alberta. We can’t fix every problem in the world.

Question 11

Why is there such emphasis on the Grassy Mountain Project in the petition?

Accepted Answer

Because Grassy Mountain is one of the imminently looming projects in an extremely sensitive area at the headwaters of the Oldman River that provides drinking water for 200,000 people and is the thin edge of the wedge for a larger plan to allow much more coal mining in a much larger area of our Rocky Mountains. The project has already been deemed not to be in the public interest by the federal government, the provincial Alberta Energy Regulator and the provincial courts of appeal but the project is being allowed to reapply for a full mining license very soon. It is a ‘foot in the door’ as it will reportedly provide much of the loading infrastructure for other future mining projects and expansions. Grassy is key to this whole effort and if we don’t stop Grassy Mountain, more and more mines will follow. Grassy is the goal line stand.

Question 12

Why are we considering mining coal to burn coal for energy?

Accepted Answer

This coal is not for energy production (thermal coal). Thermal coal production has been largely phased out in Alberta and Canada. This issue is about metallurgical coal, used to make steel.

Question 13

Don’t we need metallurgical coal to make steel?

Accepted Answer

Certainly, but more modern methods of steel production that don’t require coal are being used by Scandinavia, China and India. This will only increase over time. Perhaps most importantly, the coal in question has been analyzed by independent coal engineers with decades of industry experience and has mostly been found to be of poor quality and highly questionable in terms of its marketability as steel producing coal. Also, the amount of coal available here is insignificant on a global scale and is in an extremely sensitive area in the headwaters of our rivers. It’s not necessary to mine our mountains and ruin our water for such a tiny amount of metallurgical coal.

Question 14

Don’t we need the jobs?

Accepted Answer

Of course we need jobs but every project has to be examined in terms of cost/benefit. The few hundred jobs being discussed per mine have to be weighed against the detrimental effects on other industries, such as agriculture, tourism, guiding/outfitting etc as well as the massive cost to taxpayers to clean up the inevitable mess that will be left behind. It doesn’t add up. As well, the coal industry is aggressively and vocally embracing automation, reducing the need for human workers in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions

About the Petition

About the Coal Issue