On June 11, more than 500 people showed up in Fort Macleod, near the site of the historic North West Mounted Police post about 170 kilometres south of Calgary, for a “Coal Town Hall” with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, three of her cabinet ministers, and the local UCP MLA.
Alberta’s deep south is conservative country. That may be why Ms. Smith, Energy Minister Brian Jean, Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson, and Livingston Macleod MLA Chelsae Petrovic thought it would be easy to sell the idea of letting a billionaire Australian coal magnate dig a massive new coal mine upstream from their farms, ranches and homes. If so, that’s not the way it worked out.
The next day social media was full of clips of the raucous crowd heckling their visitors, holding up signs reading “lie” and “false” when the elected officials opened their mouths, and generally turning the UCP sales pitch into an embarrassing fiasco.
Bradley Lafortune, executive director of Public Interest Alberta was there, and he shares his takeaways on how the town hall went sideways for the UCP, and what remains to be done to stop Northback Holdings Corp.’s dangerous Grassy Mountain project.
DJC
Ten key takeaways from Danielle Smith’s disastrous June 11 ‘Coal Town Hall’
By Bradley Lafortune
I live in Edmonton, on the North Saskatchewan River Watershed. I went to Danielle Smith’s disastrous “Coal Town Hall” in Fort Macleod on June 11 alongside about 500 other Albertans, mostly residents of the area most likely to be harmed if an Australian coal company is allowed to go ahead and build a controversial new mine on the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies. Here are 10 takeaways about why the town hall went off the rails:
1. Southern Albertans have lost trust in Danielle Smith’s reasoning for opening the Rockies back up for coal exploration and mining. They aren’t buying the economic, legal, or environmental arguments made by the premier and her ministers. The government has waited too long to attend to these issues and it’s too late for them to regain trust.
2. Albertans opposed to coal mining should not be underestimated. Despite Agriculture Minister, RJ Sigurdson telling the crowd it’s only “eco-activists” who are organizing opposition to coal mines in the region, my observation was that the room was full of ranchers, landowners, and authentically pissed off southern Albertans who didn’t take kindly to being insulted and mislabelled.
3. The UCP Government contradicts itself, and people can smell the bullshit. On one hand, the premier said she has no choice but to allow mining in our Rockies because the legal risk of stopping the project is too great. On the other, she said she wants to allow coal mining because it’s good for the economy, good for investor confidence, and environmental concerns are overblown. She said the company assured her pollution won’t be an issue as it has been with past coal mines. So which is it? They’re scrambling to land on winning talking points. In the meantime, southern Albertans are frustrated by the mixed messaging and being treated like they’re a focus group.
4. The premier of Alberta and her ministers don’t understand or care about water science that shows selenium levels are already dangerously high. An Alberta Government study in early June indicated old coal mines on the Eastern Slopes are already poisoning fish downstream, but Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz won’t let the scientists who wrote the report speak to the public or media. At the town hall, she said it’s not their job to speak publicly about their science. That’s too bad, because throughout the evening the premier and her ministers cited questionable claims about safe levels of selenium, safe consumption concentrations, and B.C.’s experience with mine cleanup. The premier herself implied southern Albertans could ingest more selenium in their diet and it would be the healthy thing to do. The thing is, people are rightly frightened and angry about the potential for poison in their water. The government did nothing to acknowledge or respond meaningfully to their concerns. Instead, it ridiculed them.
5. The premier didn’t just “get here,” but that’s what she told the town hall. “Hey guys, I just got here” was the most pathetic quote of the evening. Why? Because it shines a light on Premier Smith’s entire style of “leadership” and politics. Nothing is ever her responsibility. Someone else is always to blame. It’s my strong sense that regardless of political stripe in Alberta, this grates on people. If you can’t take responsibility for your job after you’ve been doing it for more than two years, then maybe it’s time to look for a new line of work. In southern Alberta, residents sure weren’t buying the “I’m new here” line from Danielle Smith.
6. We have an incredible challenge on our hands. It was abundantly clear the premier and her ministers didn’t come to hear from southern Albertans, they came to lecture them. If we’re going to stop coal mining from polluting our headwaters and watersheds, from the Oldman River to the North Saskatchewan and beyond, then we’re going to have to work together, find common cause, and stay focused. The premier thinks this mine is a done deal. We need to show her it’s not.
7. The UCP government really thinks it’s their job to sell specific corporate projects to the electorate. The premier wasn’t talking about the energy industry, or even a specific fuel, coal, at the town hall: she was talking about one particular project proposed by the richest woman in Australia, whose company has notoriously trampled on Indigenous rights for decades. On this particular evening we had not one, not two, but four members of cabinet, if you count the premier herself, trying to justify resurrecting an economically, socially, and environmentally disastrous project. Why? Do they work for the company? Or do they work for Albertans? Voters are now asking that question.
8. Brian Jean will say anything. From bragging about hanging out at the Legion in Fort Mac (good for you, buddy!) to asking the audience if they had snowmobiles in southern Alberta (seriously?), Energy Minister Brian Jean’s performance was a delirious trainwreck. The best moment came when he told the room that royalties on coal are way too low, that he’s got a detailed analysis saying that, and that he’ll “modernize” them. Sounds promising! But wait, he quickly went on in response to question to say he doesn’t know when or what that might mean for actual coal royalty rates. All he can say just now is that he thinks they should be “modernized.” OK then…
9. Danielle Smith loves picking cherries. Throughout the evening, Premier Smith and her ministers referred to the “citizen referendum” in the municipality of Crowsnest Pass that was held on Nov. 25, as if it were the trump card in the whole debate. But not only was this vote heavily swayed by two years of corporate lobbying by that massive Australian coal corporation, Northback, but the project in question will be built in an entirely different district than where the vote was held! Seriously, the bulk of the proposed project is located in the Municipal District of Ranchland, not Crowsnest Pass. But Danielle Smith doesn’t care about that, and she doesn’t care about the 200,000 other Albertans downstream who will be impacted by the project. A perfect cherry is too good not to pick, I guess.
10. We all know pitting one community against others is the UCP’s favourite strategy, but it’s not just Alberta versus Ottawa anymore! Now it’s even being applied to her party’s own southern Alberta base! Premier Smith’s bogus Crowsnest Pass referendum exposes her favourite dangerous game: she touts populism in general but is committed to exceptionalism in practice. This was nowhere more apparent than when she signalled her commitment to sacrificing the majority interests of regional governments, residents, ranchers, landowners, and farmers to a totally torqued referendum result. Simple populism won’t work here, but she wants to convince her base in the region that they actually really like coal. The problem for the premier is that the hundreds of folks I heard from and talked to in Fort Macleod really don’t like it, and they know why. They know that clean water and air are far more valuable than a coal bed.
So that’s 10 reasons why Premier Smith’s “Coal Town Hall” turned into a fiasco. But, wait … there’s one more thing!
11. Do a land acknowledgment, premier, and don’t pawn that job off on Brian Jean. Be our government leader and spokesperson. As one person told me, “you can’t meaningfully discuss the future of the land and water if you don’t begin by acknowledging it.” To have the premier and three other members of the provincial cabinet come to a community to talk about the future of the mountains, land and water, and fail to acknowledge the Blood, Siksika, Pikaani, and Stoney Nakoda Nations is unforgivable. Especially when members of all those communities have expressed legitimate concerns about the redevelopment of coal projects in the Eastern Slopes. Do better!