Groups want Alberta coal hearings adjourned while Appeal Court considers applications

Grassy Mountain, peak on left, and the Grassy Mountain Coal Project are seen Thursday, June 6, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

At least two groups have asked Alberta's energy regulator to call off hearings on coal exploration in the Rocky Mountains while the province's top court considers whether the proposal's applications are legitimate. 

"It makes no sense, while the actual validity of this application is in question, that we should be asked to prepare for this and spend time on something that may be null in the end," said Laura Laing of the Pekisko Group, an organization of ranchers in southwest Alberta near where Northback Holdings wants to revive coal mining. 

Pekisko's is the second such request. On Friday, the Municipal District of Ranchland also asked the regulator to delay the hearing. 

"The (district) requests that the panel adjourn the proceeding, including all upcoming submissions deadlines and hearing dates," it said in a letter to the Alberta Energy Regulator. 

Another group of ranchers, the Livingstone Landowners Group, said Monday that it plans to file a similar adjournment request later this week. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society has also asked the regulator not to hold hearings until the Alberta Court of Appeal rules. 

The requests concern Northback's plan to begin exploring for a coal mine near the Crowsnest Pass at Grassy Mountain. 

The company applied for three new exploration permits, even though the same mine proposal was denied by federal and provincial environmental review panels. As well, the United Conservative Party government ruled no more coal development would be allowed in the Rockies. 

But in a later letter to the regulator, Energy Minister Brian Jean said Northback's proposal should be considered exempt from the coal mining ban. The regulator agreed and scheduled public hearings on the applications to begin in December.

The municipal district argued at the Appeal Court that the regulator wrongly exempted Northback. Last month, the court decided to hear the appeal.

If the court rules against the regulator, the applications are quashed. The hearings will have been for naught, the municipal district said.

"Should the (district's) appeal be successful, the written submissions of the full and limited participants, and the more than two weeks of oral hearing from the participants, will have been a waste of time and resources," its letter says. 

The municipality said the regulator has in the past adjourned hearings when they might be affected by ongoing court proceedings. 

Laing said this is a busy time for ranchers as they are gathering and processing cattle from summer pastures. It's not fair to expect private citizens to assume thousands of dollars in expenses and time for hearings that may well be moot in a few months, she said.

"We're certainly not paid to do it, unlike the coal companies."

Northback has pushed for the hearings to be held as early as possible. It was originally hoping for them to be complete by the fall and has said in correspondence to the regulator it would have preferred them to be all held in December. 

The regulator was not immediately available to comment on the adjournment requests. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.