Get this………a foreign owned multinational corporation is seeking to expand the Vista Coal Mine, just outside of what’s left of the town of Jasper Alberta. Tone deaf???? We think so. As a reminder, thermal coal, which is typically burned for heating, is the worst culprit for climate change - responsible for an estimated 30% of global emissions.
Now, we need to stop it.
This project doesn't make sense of many levels:
#1. It adversely affects the rights and lands of several Indigenous groups who have never been consulted through the provincial permitting processes.
#2. The mine is owned by a foreign, multinational company Coalspur that seems to be completely disconnected from the realities within the surrounding community including the wildfires in Jasper.
#3. The Vista coal mine expansion is expected to have potentially severe adverse downstream contamination of sub-watersheds impacting the endangered Athabasca Rainbow Trout and the threatened Bull Trout.
#4. Jasper's unparalleled natural beauty is the core of what drives their outdoor recreation and tourism based local economy.
Despite the enormous scale of its proposed expansion, the Vista coal mine has slipped through the cracks and has managed to evade any federal impact assessment - a regulatory process typically required for projects for projects even a fraction of the size of Vista.
It’s high time the federal government conducted an impact assessment on Vista’s proposed expansion. The more of us who demand an impact assessment be done, the more likely our request will be heard.
Use the tool below below to send an email to Minister Guilbeault to demand a full environmental assessment.
TAKE ACTION NOW
If this all sounds familiar, in 2020 POW’s #DeclineTheMine campaign was successful in getting an assessment mandated. The expansion back then did NOT pass the environmental assessment. So there are no reasons why we can’t repeat this win again!
IN THE NEWS
CBC - Provincial government previously said there would be no more coal mining in the Rockies. Read it here.
RESOURCES:
https://species-registry.canada.ca/index-en.html#/species/1258-912
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/03/07/news/something-fishy-calls-investigate-alberta-coal-mine