On March 29, Energy Minister Sonya Savage fulfilled her February 8 promise of public consultation on a new coal policy by announcing a 5-member consultation committee. The objective, according to the committee’s Terms of Reference (ToR), was “to develop a twenty-first century natural resource development policy – a coal policy – by Albertans and for Albertans.” Emphasizing that the government “will take time to do this right,” the ToR directed the Coal Committee to file its “report and recommendations” by November 15, 2021.

The NDP did not want to wait that long.

On April 7, just days after Savage appointed the Coal Committee, NDP leader Rachel Notley introduced a private member’s bill, the Eastern Slopes Protection Act, which, if passed, would instantly settle some of the issues being considered by Coal Committee. For example, whereas the Committee’s ToR asked whether “surface mining [should] ever be considered” in the 1976 Coal Policy’s “Category 2 lands,” Notley’s Act would immediately prohibit any new coal mining activities in those lands (though existing operations could remain active). Coal-related activities would also be halted in category-3 and -4 lands, pending new and comprehensive regional plans developed under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act.

Notley’s proposed Act would also stop exploration activities that Savage had allowed to continue after reinstating the 1976 policy. “If the UCP wanted a good faith consultation, all of these activities would be halted until Albertans told the government if they wanted coal mining or not,” argued Notley.

Notley’s bill passed pro-forma first reading on April 7 and was sent on to the legislative Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ Public Bills to determine whether it should get further legislative attention. A letter writing campaign was launched to persuade the Committee to allow the bill to proceed. I participated in that campaign with the emailed letter featured in the next post in this series.