Robust? : Environmental Regulation of Coal Mining in Alberta. Virtual Town Hall – June 8, 2021

June 9, 2021

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• Coal
• Livingstone-Porcupine
• Public Lands
• Talk

Alberta’s Rocky Mountains and Foothills are facing an unprecedented threat; coal mining exploration and development in the Eastern slopes has the capacity to pollute vital headwaters and completely dismantle fragile ecosystems.

In January 2021, Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon tried to soothe Albertans’ concerns about opening up the Rockies and Foothills to coal mining with these words:

“We have a robust regulatory system – significantly more robust than in 1976, and environmental regulations have come a long way since then.”

On June 8 2021, AWA, in collaboration with the Coal Policy Working Group and other ENGOs and concerned citizens, hosted the fourth in our ongoing series of Town Hall evenings to look carefully at Minister Nixon’s claim. Each town hall in this series is comprised of a panel of speakers that will share their expertise and experiences with the audience, in addition to answering questions.

On this occasion. we were joined by three experts: Mandy Olsgard, B.Sc., M.Sc., Senior Toxicologist and Risk Assessor with Integrated Toxicology Solutions; William Donahue, Ph.D., LL.B., Independent Consultant, Environmental Risk Assessment; and Colton Vessey, M.Sc.: a Ph.D student in Environmental Geochemistry and Mineralogy, University of Alberta.

A recording of this evening’s Town Hall on Environmental Regulation of Coal Mining in Alberta can be viewed on YouTube here.

If you would like to get involved in the issue of coal mining in Alberta, please consider writing a letter to the appropriate decision maker. AWA is recommending that letters be sent to the Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, and that they be copied to provincial decision makers.

Contact info for Minister Wilkinson, and relevant provincial ministers and leaders, can be found below. This information is also on a downloadable PDF that can be found here [Download].

As always, we appreciate if you would copy AWA’s Conservation Director Ian Urquhart on any such correspondence you send.