'Colossal back-tracking' on thermal coal export end date: environmental advocate

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s decision not to assess the impact of a massive thermal coal mine expansion is "cowardly” and “colossal backtracking” on Canada’s commitments to stop exporting this dirty fossil fuel, says an environmental advocate.

On Dec. 6, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) decided Coalspur’s Vista Coal mine expansion in west-central Alberta will not be subject to a federal impact assessment. 

“Over the last two years, we've seen zero progress on the thermal coal export ban, and now we're seeing Canada move in the opposite direction by refusing to even assess the impacts of a major expansion of Canada's largest thermal coal mine,” Julia Levin of Environmental Defence told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview. The federal government promised to end thermal coal exports by 2030, but Coalspur’s mine expansion project would operate for 11 years, until at least 2036.

Currently, the Vista open-pit coal mine, located 10 kilometres east of Hinton, produces about six million tonnes of thermal coal per year, according to the company’s 2021 submission to the IAAC. Coalspur is pursuing two expansions to the existing mine. One would expand the current open-pit mine to increase coal production capacity by 4.5 million tonnes per year. The second proposed expansion is for a small underground mine in the same area to test whether the company could add a larger underground mine to its operations. The IAAC decided the open-pit expansion will not require a federal assessment, and the underground mine expansion is already underway.

“This is a massive thermal coal mine that has never been subject to an impact assessment of any kind at the federal level,” Fraser Thomson, staff lawyer at Ecojustice, told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview.

“Our clients had asked the federal government to honour its commitments and ensure basic safeguards against the dangers of unchecked thermal coal expansion. Instead, … the federal government has removed critical guardrails on thermal coal development.”

This decision stands in stark contrast to the federal government’s past leadership on coal, Levin noted. 

Impact assessments are “a critical tool that the federal government uses to understand and limit the harms to the environment, endangered species, the climate, human health and frontline communities,” Thomson said. 

“A project or a mine, even a fraction the size of Vista, is routinely subject to this kind of an impact assessment.”

Under previous environment ministers, Catherine McKenna and Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal government took great strides to move away from coal, including committing to the Powering Past Coal Alliance and ending coal-fired electricity generation by 2030. In 2021, then-minister Wilkinson made a policy statement that the government “considers that any new thermal coal mining projects, or expansions of existing thermal coal mines in Canada, are likely to cause unacceptable environmental effects.

In June 2021, Wilkinson took a strong stance on the Vista project, in particular, and wrote to Coalspur saying “it is clear” the proposed expansions would “cause unacceptable environmental effects within federal jurisdiction.”

But when it came time to make the decision, Guilbeault was the environment minister. He chose to delegate the decision to the IAAC, rather than make the decision himself. Guilbeault did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

Guilbeault should have made the decision himself, Levin said.

“To relegate it to the agency was a cowardly move, and he has to answer to Canadians on this,” she said.

NDP MP Laurel Collins said Guilbeault and the Liberals’ decision is “shameful” and puts people’s health, the environment and endangered species at risk. 

“People should be put ahead of big polluters, and thermal coal exports need to be banned,” Collins said in an emailed statement to Canada’s National Observer. Collins is the NDP climate and environment critic.

“Like their other promises, the Liberals listened to billionaires and big polluters and are now backtracking on what they said.”

For years, Ecojustice has represented local groups (Keepers of the Water Society and the West Athabasca Watershed Bioregional Society) in court, arguing the Vista coal mine expansions need a federal impact assessment.

The federal government originally said it would do an impact assessment for both expansions (the larger open-pit expansion and underground test mine). But the company argued it wasn’t necessary and the issue went back and forth through the courts for several years. This was prolonged when the Supreme Court ruled the act was unconstitutional. Once the federal government made changes to the act, Ecojustice reapplied for the expansions to undergo an impact assessment.

Thomson said Ecojustice and its clients are still reviewing the decision but remain committed to ensuring, if the project moves forward, there will be an impact assessment. 

In an emailed statement to Canada’s National Observer, IAAC said it did not designate the expansion for an assessment because the company has been “actively consulting with numerous Indigenous groups” and other provincial and federal regulations can address any potential negative impacts.

The statement said the government remains committed to its environmental and climate commitments. It did not directly address the contradiction between expanding thermal coal mining at the same time as Canada is supposed to stop exporting this dirty fossil fuel, or reference the 2030 deadline.

“The refusal to even do proper due diligence is shocking from a government that used to be committed to this issue,” Levin said. 

Burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of the climate crisis and coal is one of the worst culprits. It is the dirtiest fossil fuel and releases air pollution harmful to human health. 

“Not only has Canada not fulfilled its commitment to Canadians, it's moving in the opposite direction,” Levin said.

Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer