The Mountains Are Calling: Calgary's Urgent Fight for Water and the Eastern Slopes

[CALGARY, AB] — A country singer, a $95 million settlement, and a government policy that 79.5% of Albertans actively oppose. Welcome to Alberta's coal fight, where the stakes are the Rockies themselves — and the clock is ticking.

The Mountains Aren't For Sale — But Someone Forgot to Tell Edmonton

In February 2026, Corb Lund — yes, that Corb Lund — relaunched the "Water Not Coal" citizen initiative petition, calling for a provincial law that would prohibit all new coal exploration and mining in the Eastern Slopes. It's not his first rodeo. An earlier version was approved by Elections Alberta, then reversed after a convenient legislative amendment. So he came back. The petition now needs 177,732 physical signatures by June 10, 2026, to force a legislative vote. That's a tight window. That's also the point.

For Calgarians who hike the Bow Valley corridor, drink municipal water, or simply look west and feel something — this one is personal.

The Policy That Built This Mess

Here's how we got here. In December 2024, the Alberta government unveiled the "Coal Industry Modernization Initiative" (CIMI), promising to ban new open-pit coal mining in the Eastern Slopes. A clean headline. Buried in the fine print: exemptions for "advanced" projects — a loophole wide enough to drive a haul truck through.

One month later, Minister Brian Jean's ministry issued Ministerial Order 003/2025, lifting the existing moratorium on coal exploration entirely. By May 2025, the Alberta Energy Regulator had approved Northback Holdings Corp.'s exploration program at Grassy Mountain — the same project that was rejected in 2021 — citing its "advanced" status as grounds for exemption. Northback plans to spend $5 million on that program, with over $1 billion already invested in the project since 2015.

The government calls this modernization. Critics call it a word game.

The Price Tag Albertans Are Already Paying

Coal royalties in Alberta generated $7.3 million in 2021. Over five years, they've ranged between $7 million and $23 million annually. That number is not a typo. Compare it to the $95 million settlement Albertans just paid to Evolve Power in October 2025 — a direct consequence of the policy chaos surrounding coal development. The math is not flattering. Policy instability in this sector has already cost hundreds of millions in litigation. The mountain water is, quite literally, worth more than the coal beneath it.

177,732 Reasons to Pay Attention

The petition is physical. In 2026. That's an intentional friction point baked into Alberta's citizen initiative legislation — digital signatures don't count, which means this campaign requires boots on the ground, clipboards at farmers' markets, and people who care enough to find a pen. With the June 10 deadline looming, the Water Not Coal campaign is mobilizing across the province.

For Calgary's 35-to-55 crowd — the demographic that owns property near the mountains, raises kids who camp in Kananaskis, and actually reads the water quality reports — this isn't abstract environmentalism. Selenium contamination from coal mines doesn't stay in the mountains. It moves downstream. It moves through the watershed. It moves through the tap.

Valory Resources is still advancing the Blackstone Project. Northback's Environmental Impact Assessment Terms of Reference landed in November 2025. The machinery is moving, petition or not.

The question isn't whether Albertans care about their mountains. Seventy-nine-point-five percent of them already answered that. The question is whether 177,732 of them care enough to sign their name to it before June 10.

Find the petition at waternotcoal.ca.