A mining company is steamrolling past a key phase in federal oversight to pursue its expansion plans.
Now, we need to stop it.
Only an hour north of where climate-fuelled wildfires tore through the town of Jasper, Coalpsur is proposing a massive expansion of its Vista coal mine — a move that would make it the largest thermal coal mine in Canadian history.
In addition to producing one of the most dirty fossil fuels in the world [1][2], Coalspur’s unprecedented expansion would imperil two already at-risk fish species — the iconic Bull Trout and Athabasca Rainbow Trout.[3][4]
Both species grow more slowly and spawn later than other trout — a quality that makes them particularly adapted to the cold headwater streams of the Athabasca River Basin, but also particularly vulnerable. If nothing is done, Coalspur’s expansions of its Vista coal mine will see the Athabasca Rainbow Trout’s critical habitat dug up, and sub-watersheds with large estimated Rainbow Trout populations potentially contaminated.[5] The impacts on vulnerable species could be devastating.[6]
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 very normal regulatory exercise 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.
[3] https://species-registry.canada.ca/index-en.html#/species/1258-912
[4] https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry/recovery-strategies/bull-trout-proposed-2020.html
[5] https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/03/07/news/something-fishy-calls-investigate-alberta-coal-mine
[6] https://ecojustice.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-08-07-Designation-Request-Vista-Phase-II-and-Underground-Mine.pdf