Country musician Corb Lund has asked Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to issue an immediate moratorium on new coal development approvals, expansions, and exploration in the Eastern Slopes on Wednesday. Lund is one of the leaders of Water Not Coal, the organization that launched a petition protesting the development of coal mining in the Eastern Slopes that was ultimately denied when Elections Alberta said it fell around 5,700 verified signatures short of qualifying to be on the Oct. 19 referendum. Thursday, Lund told CTV News he wants the government to put the brakes on coal development until a judicial review process into Election Alberta’s verifications methods is complete. “We think it’s crucial that we have a moratorium on all new coal development and permitting and applications and expansions,” Lund said. “The government appears to be pushing through as many coal projects as they can. I don’t think we can trust these people (the Alberta government) anymore.” In his letter, Lund said that renewed coal activity poses irreversible risks to Alberta’s headwaters, fisheries, ranchlands, and downstream communities. Verification process concerns He also expressed concern over Elections Alberta’s handling of the counting of Water Not Coal signatures following the resignation of five employees in protest over the verification process used to verify the Water Not Coal signatures. Lund said the former employees said in a letter delivered to himself and members of the Standing Committee on Legislative Offices that the process they had been following to verify signatures on previous recalls and petitions were no longer going to be utilized. Supervisors were informed of the day before staff were scheduled to arrive for training and to begin petition validation. They said supervisors had not been given access to any training material or the new templates they were expected to use with the new service agents who had to be trained. “Over the next couple of weeks the process went from bad to worse. Most disturbingly, policies and procedures kept changing and service centre staff often had no idea of what these changes were,” the unnamed former Elections Alberta staff members said in their letter. “These departures, and the concerns they documented, raise legitimate questions about whether the Water Not Coal petition was reviewed in a fair, consistent, and procedurally sound manner,” Lund said, in a media release. On Thursday, he praised the five former Elections Alberta employees. “We have a contentious referendum coming up and probably a pretty important election within the next year,” he said, “so EA (Elections Alberta) has to be an institution that Albertans can trust so they need to do what it takes to earn that trust.” “I think it was a real honourary move that those people at Elections Alberta made to bring attention to this issue for all Albertans. Those five people are kind of heroes. I think all Albertans should applaud them because to quit their long-term jobs over the integrity of the process is a pretty honorable thing to do.” Statistically valid sample size The Citizen Initiative Act required Lund’s team to collect a minimum of 177,732 verified and validated signatures in order for Lund’s question to proceed to a referendum ballot on Oct.19. Canvassers collected signatures between February and June 10. The group says it collected more than 200,000 signatures during that period. Elections Alberta says it counted 196,000 valid signatures, and a statistical sampling led them to estimate only 172,000 of those could be verified, causing the petition to fall a little more than 5,000 verified signatures short of qualifying for the referendum. Water Not Coal says Elections Alberta only contacted 384 people during the verification process. A spokesperson for Elections Alberta said in July it tried to contact 853 people during the signature verification process to meet that 384 figure, which is a statistically valid sample size for the petition. “We have not conducted a petition verification yet in which we were unable to reach the required sample size and conduct verification with them,” the spokesperson said. “The primary reasons signatures were rejected during the verification phase included electors being unable or unwilling to verify the information on the petition sheet, and not providing valid contact information to reach them for verification.” Water Not Coal has already filed for a judicial review challenging aspects of the province’s coal approval process. Lund said given the premier’s earlier statement saying she expressed interest in “continuing to work with Lund on this issue,” that the first step to resuming the conversation is to announce a moratorium. ‘Clear and rigorous process’ “With regards to the Corb Lund petition, Elections Alberta followed a clear and rigorous process that aligned with the requirements set out in the Citizen Initiative Act. The petition verification process was also applied and followed consistently. “The only changes made to the process were the result of legislation changes or identified process improvements and efficiencies. “As the Corb Lund petition is now the subject of a judicial review, it would be inappropriate for Elections Alberta to comment further on this topic. “Petition proponents have a right to seek a judicial review, and we support and are participating in that process. “Elections Alberta does not comment publicly on human resource or employment related matters, given the confidential and personal information involved.” But Lund says the elections watchdog “needs to clean house” to ensure it upholds its mandate. “I think Elections Alberta needs to clean house over there,” he said, “because we need to trust them. I’m a patriotic Albertan and I think we need to have strong institutions with people that we can put our faith in to make good decisions.” “Because of the urgency of our appeal and the government appearing to be hellbent on pushing as many coal projects through in the interim as they can we have asked for an expedited process and that would put it in January. If it’s not expedited, it would be probably late 2027.” CTV News has reached out to premier’s office for comment. With files from CTV News’ Cassidy McMackon and Karsen Marczuk
