From Calgarian Carolyn Fisher: DO NOT share Canadian Environment Reviews with the corrupt Alberta Environmental Regulator and Alberta UCP Government

I grew up on a farm in southern Alberta. On our farm, the well water was not safe to drink. So we had to haul every drop of water that we ever used in the house from town, 9 miles away.

With that in mind, I have been enraged to see the UCP Alberta government and their industry-captured toady, the Alberta Energy Regulator, weasel and maneuver in their efforts to bring open pit coal mining to the eastern slopes of the Alberta Rockies.

As an Albertan, I was horrified to learn about the recent draft Co-operation Agreement between Alberta and Canada on Environmental and Impact Assessment.

Why would the federal government abdicate its responsibility to regulate projects that put Alberta's landscapes, watersheds, flora, fauna, and people at risk – to the untrustworthy Alberta Energy Regulator?

The Alberta UCP government - and the controversial Alberta Energy Regulator - have shown over and over again that they prize industry and extraction, especially digging, drilling, and chopping, at the cost of protecting Alberta's watersheds and environment.

The Alberta Energy Regulator is known by Albertans to be a captured regulator that fails to do its job of holding industry to account and protecting environmental standards.

Examples:

Northback Coal's Grassy Mountain coal mining project on the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Despite being rejected as not in Alberta's interest in 2021 by the Federal and Provincial Joint Panel, the UCP Alberta Government instructed the AER to call the supposedly terminated Grassy Mountain coal project "Advanced" so that it could be exempted from the 2025 moratorium on further coal development - and therefore continue.

Coal mining releases selenium and other toxins into watersheds, killing at-risk native fish and contaminating the water downstream for humans - for generations. There is no technology that will clean up the selenium in a watershed to safe levels. Just ask Teck, who spent billions trying to remove selenium from the Elk River in BC. Or ask Fernie and Sparwood, who are having trouble finding suitable water wells, since selenium from coal mining appears to have leached the groundwater.

Alberta Energy Regulator CEO Rob Morgan cancelled a planned public hearing for the Valory Resources Summit coal mine at the request of the coal company CEO. Huh? How does that happen for public engagement on this proposed coal mine near Grande Cache?

The supposed-to-be impartial Alberta Energy Regulator privately met with Northback coal before reversal of the moratorium on coal mining in 2025.

What a flagrant conflict of interest. Do you really want this kind of thing to continue?

Accountable, transparent, and meaningful engagement of the public is necessary throughout the entire regulatory process. This draft agreement threatens to weaken, and in some cases potentially eliminate, the opportunity for Albertans to have a say in the projects that impact our quality of life and our livelihoods.

Importantly the Agreement also states that Alberta “views UNDRIP as non-binding.” This raises significant questions on whether the AER will require meaningful consultation and reflect input and involvement of Indigenous peoples in project decisions

Don't let the scandal-plagued Alberta Energy Regulator and the Alberta UCP government get away with allowing industry to make up industry regulations without oversight from Albertans. We must have an impact assessment process that encourages participation, restores independent oversight, embeds climate and cumulative‑effects science, respects Indigenous Peoples and their Rights, increases transparency, and ensures strong, enforceable, and evidence-based standards.

I want our Alberta watersheds, critical habitats, flora, fauna, and people to be protected from unregulated industry. The AER is a failure. I've been doing my part by collecting signatures for Corb Lund's petition to stop coal mining on the eastern slopes of Alberta.

Now you do YOUR part. Don't allow the Alberta UCP government and the AER to wreck Alberta for the benefit of industry.

Thank you,

Carolyn Fisher

Calgary, Alberta