Alberta country music artist and rancher Corb Lund formally submits his "Water Not Coal" anti-coal mining petition to Elections Alberta, in Edmonton, on Wednesday.Amanda May Erickson/The Canadian Press
A petition led by country musician Corb Lund to ban new coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies has failed.
Alberta’s election agency announced Friday that Lund’s petition didn’t gain enough verified signatures to move it forward.
Lund, in a statement, said it appears roughly 35,000 signatures were rejected by Elections Alberta, and he has “grave concerns” about the fairness of the process.
“We are simultaneously shocked by this outcome, yet, unfortunately, not surprised, given the continual government rule changes and roadblocks we have faced throughout this campaign,” he said.
“This has been an unreasonable and opaque process from the beginning. And despite diligently following every rule, we are left with more questions than answers.”
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Lund thanked volunteers and those who signed, saying the announcement doesn’t mark the end of the fight.
“Your commitment to protecting our headwaters and ranchlands has been extraordinary. This effort – and your effort – will not be in vain,” he said.
His petition drive, titled “Water Not Coal,” needed almost 178,000 signatures to force Premier Danielle Smith’s government to consider passing a law banning new coal mining or to send the issue to a provincewide referendum.
Elections Alberta, in a news release, said 196,000 valid signatures were counted but only about 172,000 were verified.
It said some signatures were rejected because they were missing contact information to reach electors to verify them.
It was an unexpected setback for Lund.
Three weeks ago, he delivered to the agency what he said were about 205,000 signatures, collected by thousands of canvassers.
The issue became moot. Smith rejected the possibility of including an anti-coal mining question on the province’s Oct. 19 referendum, saying it was too late to get it on the ballot.
Her United Conservative Party government is putting 10 questions on the referendum, including one asking Albertans whether they want the province to remain in Canada or to hold a second, binding referendum on secession.
Elections Alberta said it needed to receive all questions by June 1 to prepare for the referendum, in part because they need time to staff up.
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Lund has long been fighting coal mining on the eastern slopes, citing potential damage to the environment, particularly water. Lund said he didn’t trust foreign coal companies’ promises of jobs, wealth and strict environmental stewardship.
“Nobody wants this,” Lund said in late May during the final drive for signatures.
The petition singled out two potential coal mining projects – Northback Holdings’ Grassy Mountain project and Valory Resources’ Blackstone mine – and called for them to be stopped.
In a statement, Northback said its revised mine design aims to protect water quality in the Crowsnest Pass for the people and wildlife downstream. Valory didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Coal Association of Canada said in a statement that it hopes the end of the petition will prompt a more constructive conversation.
“There will always be differing views on resource development, and that is healthy in a democracy,” president Robin Campbell said. “But Albertans have spoken.”
Sam Blackett, a spokesperson for the premier, thanked Lund and those who took part in the petition. He said the government respects the independence and integrity of the citizen initiative and signature validation process.
The province is working to finalize a new coal development policy, Blackett added.
“All new mining projects must use modern underground mining techniques or other mining technologies that keep selenium out of rivers and streams.”
He said there will be testing at 58 monitoring stations in and downstream of the eastern slopes.
The controversy stretches back years.
In 2020, the United Conservative Party government rescinded a decades-old coal policy to reopen much of the eastern slopes to mining. It rolled that back the following year due to public outcry.
The government reignited the debate in 2024, when it introduced rules banning new mines on the slopes while exempting advanced projects.
Under Smith, it also changed the rules for citizen-initiative petitions multiple times, forcing Lund to restart his application process late last year.