CALGARY/TERRITORIES OF THE BLACKFOOT AND PEOPLES OF TREATIES 6 AND 7, HOME TO MÉTIS NATION OF ALBERTA, REGION III — Late Friday, December 6, 2024, it was announced that Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada would allow a massive expansion to Coalspur’s Vista Coal Mine to move forward without a federal impact assessment.
Without a federal impact assessment, the proposed expansion can move forward unchecked, likely to double production at what is already the largest thermal coal mine in Canada. Despite its enormous scale, the mine, located just an hour north of Jasper, has continuously slipped through cracks and loopholes and avoided a federal impact assessment — a critical tool in ensuring the government understands and limits harms to the environment, endangered species, the climate, human health, and frontline communities.
Community, Indigenous, and environmental groups are calling out the federal government for this serious backtracking on its promises to power past coal. Over the past few months, multiple First Nations and thousands of individuals in Alberta and across the country wrote the Minister to voice their deep concerns about the expansions and call for a full impact assessment. Instead of ensuring basic safeguards against unchecked thermal coal expansion, the government turned its back on its climate and biodiversity commitments, putting industry interests and profits above public concern.
The expansion is expected to have disastrous consequences on the environment, endangered species, and human health — all of which the government has a duty to protect. It will destroy critical fish habitat, impact water quality, threaten the rights of Indigenous people, and put Canada’s climate commitments further out of reach.
Notably, the proposed expansion plans will contaminate and destroy the critical habitats of two endangered species: the Athabasca Rainbow Trout and Bull Trout. These unique salmonoid species are specially adapted to the cold headwater streams of the Athabasca drainage basin, which the mine expansions plan to dig an open pit mine through.
Representatives from community and environmental groups shared the following:
Fraser Thomson, Climate Director at Ecojustice, said: “We asked the government to honour its commitments to Canadians and safeguard our environment and the health of frontline communities from the dangers of coal. Instead, Canada is doubling-down on exporting one of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuels. By refusing to designate the Vista Coal Mine for an impact assessment, the federal government has removed critical guardrails on thermal coal development.”
Jesse Cardinal, Executive Director, Keepers of the Water, said: “By failing to order an Impact Assessment for such a massive project, the Minister has failed communities, endangered species, and the watersheds we depend on. Many of the local communities we represent are still reeling from a disastrous wildfire season, it’s unimaginable that the federal government has waved through a thermal coal mine expansion just an hour north of Jasper, without making any attempt to fully understand the risks it poses. All future generations will suffer from the consequences of this destructive mining project.”
Art Jackson, President, West Athabasca Watershed Bioregional Society, said: “This decision hits close to home. Having had to evacuate our homes during the devastating Jasper wildfires this summer, the mine expansions will put further stress on our communities, who are finding themselves in the crosshairs of wildfires and other climate disasters more and more frequently. We asked Minister Guilbeault to do the right thing, honour his climate promises and put the safety, health and well-being of our communities ahead of Coalspur profits. Instead, he chose to put the continuous expansion of this toxic, dangerous fuel source above our health, our life-giving waters, land, and air, our wildlife and our futures.”
Caroline Brouillette, Executive Director, Climate Action Network Canada (CAN-Rac): “Over the past nine years, the Trudeau government has positioned itself as a global leader in moving away from thermal coal. But true leadership means standing up to coal companies — not allowing them to carve up our environment and to profit from further fueling the climate crisis. In allowing the Vista coal mine expansion to move forward without a federal impact assessment, the government has positioned Vista to become the largest thermal coal mine in Canadian history — a betrayal of this government’s promises to Canadians and the world.”
Background
- In July 2020, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change found that the two Vista coal mine expansions should undergo a federal impact assessment. This decision was challenged in two separate legal actions in the Federal Court by Coalspur and Ermineskin Cree Nation.
- In the challenge brought by Ermineskin Cree Nation, the court found that the Minister had failed to consult prior to making a decision, and as a result found Coalspur’s application to challenge the impact assessment designation moot.
- Following consultation with all affected First Nations, in September 2021 the Minister redesignated the Vista coal mine expansions for a federal impact assessment.
- Coalspur again sought judicial review of the Minister’s designation decision. Ecojustice, on behalf of its clients, returned to Federal Court in June 2023 to argue that Alberta’s Vista coal mine expansions demand an impact assessment.
- In October 2023 the Supreme Court of Canada declared that certain portions of the Impact Assessment Act were unconstitutional, once again ending the Vista judicial review and designation of the proposed expansions.
- On June 20, 2024, the amended Impact Assessment Act was passed, allowing for re-designation of the two Vista expansions.
- The Impact Assessment Agency has now reversed the 2021 redesignation decision by deciding not to designate the larger expansion. In the interim, Coalspur has already begun construction on the smaller of the two expansions.
About
Ecojustice uses the power of the law to defend nature, combat climate change and fight for a healthy environment. Its strategic, public interest lawsuits and advocacy lead to precedent-setting court decisions, law and policy that deliver lasting solutions to Canada’s most urgent environmental problems. As Canada’s largest environmental law charity, Ecojustice operates offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax.
Keepers of the Water are First Nations, Métis, Inuit, environmental groups, concerned citizens, and communities working together for the protection of water, air, land, and all living things within the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin. Keepers of the Water understand that clean, fresh water is invaluable to life and the environment for a sustainable, balanced, and just future for the survival of all of the life we share on this incredible planet.
The West Athabasca Watershed Bioregional Society is a group of concerned citizens from Edson, Jasper, Hinton, Brule, and surrounding areas who work to protect, preserve and restore the Athabasca Watershed through advocacy, education and community projects.
