The campaign is focused specifically on prohibiting coal mining in the Eastern Slopes of Alberta's Rockies, nothing else.

These are very important areas that Albertans treasure, containing the headwaters that provide most of the drinking water for the province. Coal mining is notorious for contaminating surrounding groundwater and rivers with a number of toxic pollutants, most notably selenium which is very harmful to fish populations as well as to animals and humans as concentration builds up and bio-accumulates.

There is no known economically practical or proven scaleable method of preventing this kind of pollution which is associated with coal mines or to clean up the water after it's been contaminated. Contamination builds and bioaccumulates in plants and animals and will be here in our groundwater for decades and possibly centuries after the foreign companies have taken the coal and left.

I'm a sixth-generation rural Albertan. Both sides of my family have been involved in agriculture in the province for over 120 years. I spent a lot of my youth horseback on the family ranch near Cardston and I feel very strongly these areas should be protected, especially the water. My grandfather and I rode every inch of that place many times, and every single day he'd comment on the level of the creek and the quality of the water, as well as taking immense pride in the health of his soil and of his grass. I learned at a very young age that water and soil quality are core values for maintaining ecosystems in these types of areas.

I currently live in Lethbridge, downstream from the proposed Grassy Mountain coal mining project in the headwaters of the Oldman River. The Oldman provides the drinking water for over 200,000 Albertans, including Lethbridge and many other communities. It also provides irrigation water for farmers and water to a multi-billion dollar food processing industry in Lethbridge. I drink this water myself, as do my friends and my family. Keeping the water clean and the mountains intact is very personal for me. The Rockies are close to my heart and I feel very strongly about not allowing foreign coal companies to destroy them.

Primarily because they threaten our water with selenium contamination. To get at the coal seams, they blow the top off the mountain, crush it into smaller rock and dump it somewhere, often in a nearby valley. Rainwater washes over those freshly exposed broken rock surfaces and leaches selenium into groundwater. Teck Resources, one of the largest and most advanced mining companies in the world, has spent over a billion dollars trying to fix this in BC's Elk Valley area and can't. Montana groups are suing BC because contamination from the Elk Valley has reached hundreds of kilometers downstream and has polluted the Kootenay River and Lake Koocanusa in the US. Recent studies in Alberta show contamination levels downstream from coal mines at four to nine times the provincial guidelines.

The technology to prevent it doesn't exist in any practical form. The coal companies will exaggerate and tell you that SOME of the selenium can be mitigated SOME of the time, in a Petri dish, in perfect conditions, IF the companies follow all the rules (which they likely won't) and IF the regulations are strong enough (which they are not) and IF the government enforces them (which they often do not). It's simply not practical. The coal companies and the government are asking us to trust them and their track record is abysmal — they've repeatedly failed to follow through on their commitments. The risk to Alberta's water supply is just too high to take any kind of gamble trusting these people with it.

The mining companies like to say misleading things like "selenium is naturally occurring", and while that may be true, concentrating it the way coal mining does is not natural or healthy for aquatic life or humans. This is a juvenile argument. For example, we need oxygen to live also, but too much of it becomes very toxic. It's all a matter of the amount.

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 to be not 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 future mining projects. Grassy is the thin edge of the wedge and if we don't stop Grassy Mountain, more and more mines will follow. Grassy is the goal line stand.

That's how the government and coal companies are framing it, but it doesn't make any sense. The footprint of the new project is going to be many times larger than the existing mine that needs to be cleaned up. It would make much more economic sense for the government to just pay to clean up the existing Grassy site instead of allowing a much bigger mine to make a much bigger mess that taxpayers will eventually have to pay much, much more for in the future.

Also, 'reclamation' is very misleading in my view. You can plant grass seed on the hill after the mine closes but anyone can understand that you can't 'reclaim' or recreate a complex mountain ecosystem that evolved over millions of years.

The companies claim that, but the evidence doesn't support it. They have been playing word games for years now, attempting to fool the public. Whether it's mountain top removal mining, strip mining, surface mining, underground mining, high wall mining or any other kind of coal mining, the risk is too high. Albertans should not trust these corporations or the government, given their track record and dishonesty on these issues year after year.

The coal companies are currently in full advertising/public relations mode and they will say anything necessary to be given approval to mine our Eastern Slopes. And the second the approval is given, my prediction, based on typical industry behaviour, is that they will start cutting corners, lobbying the government to relax already insufficient standards and simply polluting outright and just paying the fines. The fines are nowhere near high enough to be anything other than a small expense compared to what the companies will profit from our coal. It's just a standard cost of doing business for them.

These coal companies are corporations and all they care about is making money from our coal, nothing else. No matter how friendly their spokespeople are, how many school lunches they buy or how many golf courses they spruce up, they will ruin our water, take the coal and leave taxpayers with billions of dollars worth of clean up. History tells us that's exactly what will happen.

Yes. BC's Elk Valley proves it — multiple modern mines, massive contamination despite them spending over a billion dollars trying to fix it. Fernie and Sparwood have had to stop using some of the sources of their municipal water due to selenium contamination. And here in Alberta, our old mines (Gregg River, Luscar, McLeod) still have high selenium levels decades after closing. Former Alberta Environment scientists found the government suppressed this data for 10-15 years. Current government studies show that the Grassy Mountain area is already high in selenium from legacy mining. Why on earth would we add to an already overburdened area?

Prominent animal nutritionist Lee Eddy states that any amount of selenium leaching into the Oldman watershed via Grassy Mountain would be especially harmful because it would be adding to an ecosystem with already elevated selenium toxicity.

Albertans are already in an enormous reclamation deficit. The coal companies aren't required to post adequate cash bonds anywhere close to levels required to actually do the cleanup after mining is shut down.

Even mines that have certificates of reclamation from AER or its predecessor continue to contaminate our mountain rivers. Taxpayer funded Alberta government scientists have been publishing detailed findings on this for years.

Dr Colin Cooke, a government of Alberta scientist who has conducted a number of damning studies on coal related air and water contamination has not been given permission to speak with the public or the media, despite requests from nearly every major outlet. Minister Schulz's office responded to questions about this by saying Dr Cooke is "a trained researcher, not a trained spokesperson." Which to me is just a bullshit way of saying "Dr Cooke will just tell you the truth about his studies, instead of distorting it to fit our narrative, since he's not a 'trained spokesperson' like us."

Dr Cooke also did studies addressing airborne contaminants blown over the Rockies from the mines in BC and found significantly increased concentrations of selenium and extremely elevated levels of coal-derived contaminants in area lakes. Opening coal mines in the extremely windy areas of southwestern Alberta would result in coal related contaminants blowing east into Calgary and Lethbridge as well as poisoning high-mountain lakes in the Kananaskis. Dr Cooke's studies showed extremely high levels of selenium in the trout in Crowsnest Lake, to the extent that the government had to issue a fish consumption advisory for Crowsnest Lake, telling the public to limit consumption of trout and whitefish due to selenium contamination.

Obviously jobs are important. But just saying the word 'jobs' doesn't mitigate all the negatives of a project. Coal company messaging claims a few hundred jobs will be created at Grassy Mountain — that's the best number they can come up with and they are vague about the nature of the jobs. And the small number of permanent jobs will only go DOWN as automation takes over — modern mining uses robots, not people. Meanwhile, there are 200,000+ people downstream who depend on this water, plus a multi-billion dollar food processing industry in Lethbridge. A few hundred temporary jobs have to be weighed against impacts on the agricultural industry and the tourism industry. This whole coal mining idea is irresponsible, dishonest and short sighted. It's insane in my view.

McCain just expanded a Lethbridge plant which will create 250 perpetual jobs. Ross McKenzie P.Ag., PhD. wrote that the Grassy Mountain Project would put all that in jeopardy. It makes no economic sense to put thousands of existing sustainable jobs in the agriculture and food processing industries at risk.

As well, the coal industry is embracing automation at a rapid pace. In their public materials aimed at shareholders and at encouraging investment, the coal companies brag about how they are increasingly turning to automation in order to cut costs and require fewer workers. While at the same time promising us jobs.

And the most relevant thing for fiscal conservatives is the clean up cost. For years now we have been saying that if these mines open up, somewhere down the line when the coal is no longer profitable, the companies will go home, restructure, go bankrupt, etc, and leave a massive clean up bill for the taxpayer. I have carefully avoided all other public issues for six years and will continue to do so. But just for some context I will point out that the regulatory body responsible for our province's abandoned wells issue, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), is the same body responsible for overseeing the coal mining operations. So if you're at all unhappy with our abandoned well situation, you should consider that when you're deciding whether or not you should trust the AER with our water and coal mining.

These foreign coal companies set up limited liability Alberta single-purpose companies which can just 'walk', for any reason, leaving taxpayers with the massive clean up cost.

Whatever your political leanings, all you have to do is look around at the behavior of extraction industries to know this is true. It's part of the business model. Privatize the profits and leave behind costs to the taxpayer. This entire Eastern Slopes coal mining plan is a short sighted idea that doesn't make any sense long term, in terms of either economics or conservation. I have been saying for years now that I stake my reputation on the fact that the Alberta taxpayer is going to be left with a huge clean up bill down the road.

When the government changed the coal policy, they gave these companies a sweetheart deal — much lower royalties than in Australia. That's why an Australian billionaire set up shop here. It's not going to be much money, and we'll be stuck with the cleanup costs after they leave. This is a key part of this whole situation. When it's no longer profitable to mine our coal, they'll leave and we'll still be here.

Frankly, whatever the royalty rate, I don't feel it's worth ruining our water and mountains over. You can't drink money. But on top of all the other reasons these mines are a terrible idea and the insultingly low royalty rate is just one more reason.

No, they absolutely have not. They've been saying it's 'fixed' for six years now, while finding new loopholes. In 2021 they claimed they restored protections. In 2022 they created "advanced project" exemptions. In 2024 new rules supposedly banned mines but exempted Grassy Mountain and Mine 14 and Blackstone, and, and and, etc. They even changed petition rules retroactively after approving ours.

Now Premier Smith is basically saying, "oh these mines aren't new so don't count. We've heard Albertans and there won't be any more coal mines in the Eastern Slopes. Except for this one, and that one, and this one over here, and this other one — but don't worry, after these four new mines go in, we'll stop for sure, we promise."

We need hard legislation, not promises that keep changing. We have been immersed in this coal situation for over six years now and the government handling of it has been absolutely chaotic the entire time. Flip flopping, random short-term decision making, poor consultation, sweetheart lease buyback deals.

The government recently bought back a number of leases from the coal companies at multiples of what the companies actually spent on the leases in the first place, contrary to mining legislation allowing the government to cap lease buyouts.

These people should not be making long term decisions about our water, they are incompetent. In addition to the incompetence, I feel the entire situation is crooked.

I don't think it is exaggerating at all, but here are a couple of facts and you can make your own decision.

One of the first people I spoke to after deciding to educate myself on the coal situation was Robin Campbell. He is currently the president of the Coal Association of Canada, the main lobbying group for the coal industry in Canada. He took this job shortly after leaving provincial politics, having previously served as both Alberta's Environment Minister and Finance Minister.

Jason Kenney's government is responsible for creating this whole mess in the first place. His government actively courted Australian coal companies and apparently made all kinds of promises to them and then in 2020 his government rescinded the 1976 Lougheed Coal Policy with virtually zero public consultation. Lougheed's policy protected our Rockies from coal mining for over 40 years. Kenney's government quietly announced its cancellation late on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend, with minimal fanfare. Albertans were not asked about this and it has resulted in hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money buying back coal leases from the foreign companies, at multiples of what the companies actually spent on the leases.

Jason Kenney now holds a paid position at the Calgary law firm, Bennett Jones, the firm that is representing many of the foreign coal companies in court AGAINST the citizens of Alberta, seeking billions of dollars in settlements from taxpayers.

I'm not saying this stuff is illegal, but it sure smells funny and it sure as hell should be illegal as far as I'm concerned. In my view it's disgusting, crooked, dishonest and flies in the face of a basic sense of fairness. These people shouldn't be allowed to work in jobs anywhere remotely close to the industries they helped regulate when they were in office. Not for 25 years. Maybe not ever. In my opinion, it's legalized crookedness.

Because many people, myself included feel that the AER is not trustworthy and that it has been captured by industry.

The AER is supposed to be arm's length but it seems to be a pretty short arm. They declared Grassy Mountain an 'advanced project' shortly after receiving a letter from Energy Minister Brian Jean telling them to. That's not independent — that's rubber-stamping what the government and the coal companies want. That's after the Grassy Mountain Project was deemed to be not in the public interest by the federal government, the provincial Alberta Energy Regulator and a number of appeals courts. It was a dead project until the AB government put its finger on the scale. Now working Albertans have to fight the SAME dead mining project again, only a few years later.

The AER also recently unilaterally decided to just cancel the required public hearing for the Mine 14 project near Grande Cache. This was so egregious and possibly illegal that it is being challenged in court.

We have been told we should 'trust the process' over and over. In my view, the process is flawed, crooked, and captured by industry who care only about profit, not our water or mountains. I don't trust it one bit.

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.

In my view, based on a very deep dive into the history of the AER's activity:

1. They are a captured regulator so they prioritize development.
2. They can't even enforce existing guidelines and regulations or cleanup liabilities.
3. They are not transparent and do not allow for public input.
4. Even if they could do all of those things, overall broad legislation would provide much more certainty and clarity to everyone involved than project by project approvals involving our valuable headwaters that provide our province's drinking water.

The AER's mandate is to regulate energy development while also promoting resource development, which means it isn't actually designed to prioritize environmental or community concerns but instead prioritizes industry perspectives over broader societal impacts. On top of that, the AER faces sustained criticism over being too close to industry, slow to act on environmental risks, and inconsistent in holding companies accountable to environmental guidelines, regulations and environmental liabilities.

The recent cancellation of a public hearing for a coal mine by the AER's CEO has raised further concerns about the fairness and independence of the regulatory process. And the ongoing issues of water contamination downstream of operating mines, exposes the inability to enforce water quality guidelines.

Even if the Alberta Energy Regulator were functioning at its highest possible level, relying on case‑by‑case project approvals is a poor substitute for strong legislation, especially in landscapes with significant ecological, cultural, and economic value. Evaluating each coal proposal in isolation forces industry, governments, communities, and the regulator into a costly, time‑consuming process that ignores the broader regional constraints and cumulative effects that ultimately determine whether development is appropriate at all.

Without clear legislation, companies are encouraged to invest in applications that are inappropriate for the landscape, while the public is left navigating uncertain and fragmented decision‑making. A strategic, landscape‑level legislative framework would provide clarity, reduce conflict, and ensure that decisions reflect the full range of regional values rather than the narrow parameters of individual project reviews.

• An adversarial hearing system where the public must self-fund to hire experts and lawyers.
• Mine plans are kept from the public until late in the process.
• Stated conditions are only a list of things the proponent SAYS it can achieve; if they are not achieved by the coal companies, they beg forgiveness later.
• The penalties incurred by coal companies for polluting and for other bad ecological behavior are merely slaps on the wrist that are simply paid like any other bill because they are insignificant compared to their profits from our coal. In my view, the penalties should be so large they would threaten the financial well being of not of the company but the individual company executives personally.
• There is a culture of secrecy allowing operators to not report exceedances.
• Certificates of reclamation are issued on mines that continue to pollute (e.g. reclaimed mines near Grassy Mountain continue to discharge iron oxide and likely leach selenium and arsenic).
• The mine reclamation fund system is inadequate and comes nowhere close to funding the costs for actual cleanup.
• Even the best 'reclamation' standards don't require replacing lost biodiversity or lost soil and plants. They just plant grass seed and make it look pretty. It's not realistically even possible to replace a complex mountain ecosystem that took millenia to evolve.
• Post-mining monitoring (50+ years) is almost non-existent.
• There is no system to ensure that mine operator shareholders remain on the hook after operations end.

Urban people, rural people, First Nations, hunters, fishermen, ranchers, irrigating farmers — Albertans from all walks of life and across the political spectrum. Over 70% of Albertans province-wide repeatedly polled oppose these mines. This isn't a left-right issue.

There was a plebiscite recently on the Grassy Mountain Project and the people who ran the poll like to tell everyone that the results were 70% in favour of the project. This is only true because the only people allowed to vote were roughly 2,700 voters in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, the people who would most likely get the few jobs being offered. This was a very carefully staged plebiscite solely for the purpose of industry propaganda. The Grassy Mountain site is at the headwaters of the Oldman River and the 200,000 people downstream who use that water were not allowed to vote.

Another very relevant fact is that the footprint of the Grassy Mountain mine site is not even IN the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass. It is almost entirely in the adjacent Municipal District of Ranchlands, who want no part of it. Their MD Council has consistently voted against the mines and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal battles trying to stop them. They didn't get to vote either. The multiple province-wide polls tell a much different story.

The government and foreign coal companies — Australian billionaires who want to mine our coal, ship it overseas, take the profits, and leave us with poisoned water and cleanup costs. They'll say anything to get their permits. Once they're gone, taxpayers are on the hook.

And bafflingly, the government is staunchly supporting the foreign coal companies against the interests and wishes of Albertans year after year. This is an unpopular issue, across political lines, including many of their own voters. But for some reason, someone in govt really, REALLY wants these coal mines to go in. The vast majority of Albertans do not.

I am not a rich entertainer from Hollywood, I am a hardworking musician and make a decent living. My family were hardworking ranchers, not wealthy landowners and had many decades of tough times and were lucky to hang on to the family land. Both of my grandmothers had to take jobs as country schoolteachers to supplement the household income.

And although I live in Lethbridge and drink the water from the Oldman River which will be threatened by the Grassy Mountain Project, our small family ranch in southwestern Alberta is not threatened by these mines, fortunately, as our water comes from Montana.

I am speaking up about this issue in solidarity with many ranching families whose water and land has been and will be threatened by these coal mines, and in solidarity with Albertans in general who don't want our mountains ruined by foreign coal companies.

And speaking of rich, talk to the Australian billionaire coal speculators pushing these mines. The foreign coal companies are the only place big money comes into play in this whole situation. They'll take the coal, leave a mess and disappear. Albertans will still be here long after the coal companies are gone, dealing with whatever they leave behind.

This affects my family's water in Lethbridge, yes. That's why I know how serious it is. But it's not just about me — the phrase is "Not In My Backyard". But I say "Not In Anyone's Backyard" if it involves highly sensitive water systems and ecosystems. The headwaters of our rivers are far too fragile and important to have coal mining anywhere near them.

No. You can be pro-resource yet understand that not every project makes sense. We're talking about new metallurgical coal mines at the headwaters of our rivers in the Eastern Slopes. We're not trying to shut down existing operations elsewhere. We're not speaking about any other industries.

With eight billion people on the planet, everything we do has a cost. Agriculture, oil and gas, everything. But I have looked into this issue extremely deeply and on a comparative scale of risk/reward, these coal mines are a terrible idea.

The upside is miniscule and the risk is massive. This is about one specific type of mining in one specific place where the risk is too high. Wrong place, wrong risk, and the technology to prevent contamination doesn't exist.

No, the coal used to fire power plants is called thermal coal, largely phased out in Alberta and Canada. The deposits the coal companies are after are metallurgical coal, used to make steel.

No. This is about water contamination. Permanently poisoning the water for 200,000 people is a bad idea.

Of course we need steel. But more and more, steel is being made without coal using more modern technologies. This is being done in China, India and Scandinavia. Using coal to make steel is increasingly a sunset industry.

The amount of coal available here is insignificant on a global scale. There are many places on the planet with vast deposits of metallurgical coal that are already being mined, in less sensitive areas, where the damage has already been done, and they have no intention of stopping. We shouldn't risk our water and mountains unnecessarily.

Lastly and most importantly, much of the coal in question has been studied and found to be subpar for steelmaking. Cornelis Kolijn, who worked as a coal engineer for Teck Resources for nearly two decades and has been in the industry for over forty years on five continents, analyzed the coal in our Eastern Slopes and found that the quality is so poor it would be economically marginal and unlikely to be competitive for steel making. If this is true, what the hell are we doing this for?

Opening up our Eastern Slopes to coal mining and threatening the quality and quantity of our drinking water for coal that is not necessary is short sighted and stupid. How will we feel in 20 years if our mountains and water have been badly affected and the coal isn't marketable?

Mountaintop removal creates massive amounts of particulate matter — dust and debris that spreads far beyond the mine site. People downwind breathe that and it settles in nearby lakes and contaminates the water and the fish. The government's own studies have shown this multiple times. And the mountains will be permanently scarred. You'll see it from highways, from ski hills. That damages our tourism economy — skiing, fly fishing, hiking. Those are sustainable jobs.

You drink this water. One of the next coal mining projects in the application process is the Blackstone Project which is at the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan that provides the drinking water for Edmonton. All Albertans should be concerned about these mines.

And if you've ever skied near Crowsnest Pass, fished the Oldman River, or hiked in the Rockies — this affects you directly. The mountains we love will be scarred. Our water will be contaminated. Air pollution from mining spreads for miles. And tourism supports urban economies too.

We've seen this scenario play out over and over. They promise to do everything right but proceed to destroy the place, then roll out of town and skip out on cleanup obligations. Alberta taxpayers get stuck with the bill. I'm very disciplined about speaking about other industries, since I'm solely focussed on coal. But I will say that if you are at all concerned about our orphaned well situation here in the province, the same Alberta Energy Regulator that oversees the coal mining industry oversees that issue. So I have very little faith the AER will place the interests of Albertans ahead of the interests of the foreign coal companies.

Definitely not. I've met with representatives of four different political parties about this. I have no allegiance with any of them, I don't ally myself with politicians. This has nothing to do with partisan politics — it has everything to do with protecting the water. I would say the same thing about any government who was trying to pull a scheme like this.

I can tell you this. I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours researching, reading and meeting with people to educate myself on coal mining. In fact, that's all I did for six or eight weeks when the ranching families first asked me to speak about this. Because, believe it or not, I also hate it when public figures and 'celebrities' speak about things they don't know about. I had no dog in this fight when I started investigating it. I didn't know if it was a real threat or just an overblown exaggeration.

Well, I know a lot about coal now, more than I have ever wanted to. And I can tell you that after exhaustively researching both sides of this, I'm 100% convinced this is a terrible idea. In my view, it's short sighted, crooked and stupid. There will be a few jobs (whose short term benefits have to be balanced with the large negative impact on our agriculture and tourism industries), but overwhelmingly these mines will only benefit the foreign coal companies. And possibly certain people in government, if you catch my drift. Even if the royalty rates were very high I would be against jeopardizing our water, but the royalty rates are insultingly low as well.

In answering these questions, I'm doing my best to reiterate everything I've learned about this issue but it's impossible in a few pages. It's an hours long discussion to go through all the angles of this thing (all of which suck for Albertans). But I will put it like this:

On one side of this issue you have the foreign coal companies, their lawyers, their PR people and their hired scientists, all of whom stand to make a lot of money from these mines.

On the other side you have a bunch of doggedly determined working Albertans who have other jobs, are working at this on their own time and are not making a dime from any of this. Ranchers, farmers, fishermen, hunters, guides, outfitters, conservation experts, retired legislators, retired coal engineers and independent scientists (who have miraculously come up with entirely different findings than the scientists hired by the coal companies). And our only concern is keeping the water clean. We have nothing to gain from this but clean water and intact mountains.

So who do you think is telling the truth here?

Absolutely not. I spoke with many anti-coal people. I also met with many, many pro-coal people, at length and gave them all a fair shake. Here's a partial list, in rough chronological order:

Robin Campbell, President of the Coal Association of Canada (the largest lobby group for the Canadian coal industry), previously Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development

Jason Nixon, Minister of Environment and Parks under Jason Kenney

Sonya Savage, Minister of Energy under Jason Kenney

Peter Doyle, CEO of Montem Resources (one of the foreign coal companies)

Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas under Danielle Smith

Brian Jean, Minister of Energy and Minerals under Danielle Smith

Mike Young, CEO of Northback (another one of the foreign coal companies, behind the controversial Grassy Mountain Project)

For what it's worth, of the ones who knew what they were talking about, many of whom did not, none of them came close to convincing me these mining projects at the headwaters of our rivers are a good idea in any way. I found most of them to be quite evasive and unconvincing on the issue.

Hell, no. I would never become a politician in 1000 years. I would much, much rather be playing music and that's all I will be doing the second this coal situation is properly legislated and put to bed.

And as to my career, I can think of a couple dozen things I would rather be doing that would be much, much better for my career. I hate spending my time on the absolutely inane bullshit the government and coal companies have caused.

The only foreign funding in any of this is the coal companies themselves. We've been accused of that and it's just absolutely not true. We're regular working Albertans. The coal companies are foreign. They are Australian billionaires pushing these mines while accusing us of being outsiders.

Become a canvasser! Tell your friends and families to become canvassers! And of course, sign the petition! Tell your friends. Share on social media. Contact your MLA repeatedly. If you can afford it, please donate to this cause to help us fund it. I've donated the maximum amount already myself and it felt good. I don't think I've ever spent money on anything more meaningful.

But most importantly, we need TONS OF CANVASSERS! We need to reach the minimum of 178,000 signatures for our petition to be officially recognized but we want to get many, many more signatures than that. We want to make it glaringly obvious to the government that we need legislation to stop this stuff once and for all.

As annoying as it is to be fighting Grassy Mountain AGAIN after it was rejected by the federal govt, the provincial AER and multiple court appeals at every level, we have had an impact. If not for Albertans speaking out a few years ago, we would very likely have operating coal mines right this second in areas the 1976 Lougheed Coal Policy had protected for decades. The only thing that's slowed these mines down is huge numbers of Albertans coming together to say no. Your voice matters and we can win this fight if we are smart, persistent and LOUD.

How many times do Albertans have to say no to the same coal mines? Apparently at least once more, so let's tell them.