Award-winning country singer Corb Lund must re-apply his recently approved petition application to halt coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains after it was cancelled due to the Alberta government amending its citizen-initiated referendum legislation.
This comes after Elections Alberta gave him the all-clear on Monday to soon start collecting signatures for his petition.
The bill that passed Wednesday removes several requirements that future referendum proposals must meet before petitioners can start collecting signatures, including the proposal being constitutional, factually accurate or having clear subject matter statements.
After the amendments went into effect, petition applications made before Thursday are “deemed to have never been made” if an initiative petition hasn’t been issued, his agency said in a news release Friday.
While his “No New Coal Mining in Alberta’s Rockies” application was approved, a petition was not issued.
Lund says he’s disappointed, quoting Premier Danielle Smith as supporting “citizen-initiated referenda.” Despite the change, he will continue his efforts.
“This kind of disingenuous behaviour by the government is disappointing,” he said. “But as frustrating as this is, we will continue in this fight, reapply for a new petition and fill out as many forms as we have to if it stops coal mining in the headwaters of our rivers.”
Lund, who lives in southern Alberta and has received multiple Juno and Canadian Country Music Association nominations and awards, has been a vocal opponent of coal mining, saying it could threaten land and water in the area.
Chief electoral officer Gordon McClure said in a news release that Elections Alberta will develop fact sheets to help people understand the revisions, and the information will be posted on its website “as they are available.”
Mitch Sylvestre’s application on Alberta independence must also be resubmitted, the Elections Alberta release said, while former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s application seeking to make remaining in Canada official policy will stand after being approved in late June.
The agency also says applicants may submit a notice of intent with the same subject matter within 30 days to have the required application fee waived.
An application approved in October about removing government funding from private schools will also stand, and the applicant will not need to reapply, Elections Alberta said.
The United Conservative Party government rescinded a decades-old coal policy in 2020 to reopen much of the eastern slopes to mining. They rolled back on that the following year due to public outcry.
However, the government reignited the debate in 2024 when it introduced rules banning new mines on the slopes but exempting advanced projects like Grassy Mountain near Crowsnest Pass.
Before the notice to resubmit, Lund would have had four months to collect nearly 178,000 signatures — equal to 10 per cent of votes cast in the last general election.
If successful, the legislature would consider passing a law to ban coal mining or send it to a province-wide vote.
With files from The Canadian Press