Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Country musician Corb Lund says he’s not giving up the fight after his petition to stop new coal mining in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains was ruled a failure.
Lund says he has questions about the process that Elections Alberta used to reject the list of names and that he’s looking at taking it to court.
“We’re not going anywhere on this,” Lund said Monday in an interview.
He said his group Water Not Coal may apply for a judicial review in the coming days.
The petition was rejected last week by Elections Alberta. It was the latest setback for Lund in six years of fighting coal mining in the Rockies.
He said the mining isn’t worth the threat to the environment, particularly water, but that his efforts have been met with policy flip-flops and regulatory “rug pulls.”
“We’re frustrated about this, but not surprised,” he said.
“It makes me question to what extent we’re living in a democracy.”
We’re frustrated about this, but not surprised.- Corb Lund
Lund needed almost 178,000 signatures from citizens to force Premier Danielle Smith’s government to act on concerns over coal mining.
A successful petition would have compelled the United Conservative Party government to consider a law banning new coal mining or send the issue to a provincewide referendum.
Lund said he delivered more than 207,000 signatures, of which Elections Alberta counted 196,000 valid ones.
However, the agency said when it did random checks on the authenticity of names, statistical sampling led them to estimate 172,000 were verified, causing the petition to fail.
Lund questioned if Elections Alberta followed its own rules.
He said he has heard from people who received calls from unidentified phone numbers and, if they picked up, were asked by a person who didn’t give a staff verification number to offer up their personal information.
“They were asking people from a random 1-800 number, ‘So what is your full name, and what is your home address?”‘ Lund said,
“If that was me, I’d hang up on them.”
He added, “We followed every rule, and we’ve drilled our canvassers to be very fastidious about following all the rules. And they’re still messing with us.”
Process outlined
Elections Alberta disagreed.
The agency, in a statement Monday, said if the phone number or email address submitted by an elector wasn’t in service, that signature was rejected. And anyone contacted by phone received a text message in advance.
“No signatures were deemed invalid or failed verification because they did not answer the phone or respond to an email or voice mail for verification,” it said.
Elections Alberta said its verification process was rigorous, and last week it cited unconfirmed voter information as reasons for rejecting signatures.
The petition effort was the first to undergo the signature verification process since a massive breach of the provincial voting list prompted a higher degree of scrutiny from Elections Alberta.
Lund’s petition was somewhat moot before it was rejected.
The premier had said there wasn’t enough time to process even a successful petition for it to go on the Oct. 19 referendum ballot, which already has 10 questions.
Asked by reporters Monday about Lund’s failed petition, Smith said her UCP has already addressed those concerns in “substantive ways.”
She said her government bought back leases and freehold coal titles to preserve 400 square kilometres of the eastern slopes. She pointed to the province’s ban on mountaintop removal and open pit mining in future development and the use of technology to better manage water.
“There may be more that we can do,” she said, “But we’ll continue to have that conversation.”