10 Takeaways from Danielle Smith’s “Coal Townhall”

I live on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton, Alberta, on the North Saskatchewan River Watershed. I attended the Premier of Alberta’s disastrous “Coal Townhall” in Fort Macleod alongside 500 others on June 11th, and I have 10 big takeaways from the evening.

1. Increasingly, southern Albertans have lost trust in Danielle Smith’s reasoning for opening the Rockies back up for coal exploration and mining. They are not buying the economic, legal, or environmental arguments. The government has waited far too long to attend to these issues, and I believe it’s too late for them to regain trust and footing on the issue.
2. These Albertans opposed to coal mining should not be underestimated. Despite one minister, RJ Sigurdson, at the townhall saying he thinks it’s just “ecoactivists” organizing the opposition to coal mining, my observation was a room full of ranchers, landowners, and authentically pissed off southern Albertans who don’t take kindly to being insulted and mislabelled.
3. The UCP government is contradicting itself, and people can smell the bullshit. On the one hand, the Premier said she has no other choice but to allow mining in our Rockies because the legal risk is too great. On the other hand, she said that she wants to allow coal mining because it’s good for the economy, it’s good for investor confidence, that the environmental concerns are overblown, and the company has assured her pollution won’t be an issue as it has been with past coal mines. Which is it?  They’re scrambling to land on winning talking points. In the meantime, Albertans are becoming increasingly frustrated by the mixed messaging and being treated like a focus group.
4. The Premier of Alberta and her ministers don’t understand or care about the water science showing that selenium levels are dangerously high for fish. There’s a report that came out just weeks ago from the Government of Alberta, but the Environment Minister, Rebecca Schulz, won’t allow the scientists who wrote the report to speak to the public or media. At the townhall, she said it’s not their job to speak publicly about their science. That’s too bad because throughout the evening the Premier and ministers cited different and opposing levels of selenium, safe consumption concentrations, and made up claims about B.C.’s experience with cleanup. The Premier herself implied southern Albertans could ingest more of it in their diet and that it would be the healthy thing to do. Nice. The thing is, people are rightly scared and angry about the potential for poison in their water. The government did nothing to acknowledge and respond meaningfully to their concerns, and instead ridiculed them. Also, nice.
5. The Premier didn’t just get here, but that’s exactly what she said the other night. “Hey guys, I just got here” was the most poignant quote  of the evening. Why? Because it shines a light on her entire style of “leadership” and politics. Nothing is her responsibility, and someone else is always to blame. It’s my strong sense that regardless of political stripe in Alberta, this grates people. If you can’t take responsibility for your job after over two years you have been at it, then maybe it’s time to look for something different. In southern Alberta, residents were not buying the “I’m new here” line from Danielle Smith, and I doubt we’ll hear it again.
6. We have an incredible challenge on our hands. It was abundantly clear the Premier and her ministers didn’t come to hear from southern Alberta, they came to lecture southern Alberta. If we are going to stop coal mining from polluting our headwaters and watersheds, from Oldman to the North Saskatchewan and beyond, then we’re going to have to work together, find common cause, and stay focused. The Premier thinks this is a done deal. We need to show her it’s not.
7. The UCP government really thinks it’s their job to sell specific corporate projects to the electorate. The Premier was not talking about the energy industry, or even a specific energy, coal, at the townhall: she was talking about one particular project proposed by the richest woman in Australia, whose company has notoriously trampled on indigenous rights for decades, beginning with her father’s exploits. On this particular evening we had not one, not two, but four members of cabinet, including the Premier herself, trying to justify resurrecting an economically, socially, and environmentally disastrous project. Why? Do they work for the company? Or do they work for Albertans? Voters would be forgiven for asking the question.
8. Brian Jean will say anything, and clearly enjoys hearing himself saying it. From bragging about hanging out at the Legion in Fort Mac (good for you, buddy) to asking the audience if they had snowmobiles in southern Alberta (seriously), Jean’s performance was a delirious trainwreck. But the best moment was when he told the room that royalties on coal are way too low, that he’s got a detailed analysis, and that he will “modernize” them. Wow, that sounds promising. But wait, he quickly went on, in response to an excellent question from an attendee, that he doesn’t know when or what that will mean for actual coal royalty rates. All he can say is that he thinks they should be “modernized”. Good for you, Brian. 
9. Danielle Smith loves picking cherries. Throughout the evening, Smith and her ministers referred to the “citizen referendum” in the municipality of Crowsnest Pass that was held on November 25th, as if it were THE trump card. But not only was this vote heavily swayed by two years of corporate lobbying by the massive Australian coal corporation, Northback, but the project in question WILL BE BUILT IN AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT DISTRICT from the municipality that held the vote. Seriously, the bulk of the proposed project is located in the Municipal District of Ranchland, not Crowsnest Pass, but Danielle Smith doesn’t care about that, and she doesn’t care about the 200,000 other Albertans that will be impacted by the project. A perfect cherry is too good not to pick, I guess.
10. We all know pitting one community against others is Smith’s favourite strategy, but it’s not limited to Ottawa v. Alberta. It applies to her base too. Danielle Smith’s bogus Crowsnest Pass referendum exposes her favourite dangerous game: she loves touting populism in general but is committed to exceptionalism in practice. This is nowhere more apparent than when the Premier signalled her commitment to sacrificing the majority interests of regional governments, residents, ranchers, landowners, and farmers to a  totally torqued referendum result. Simple populism doesn’t work here, but she really wants to convince her base in the region that they actually really like coal. The problem for Danielle Smith is that the hundreds of folks I heard from and talked to in Fort Macleod really don’t like it, and they know why. They know that clean water and air is far more valuable than a coal bed.

Oh, and one more thing: Do a land acknowledgment, Premier. And don’t pawn it off on Brian Jean. Be our government leader and spokesperson. Just do better. As one attendee said: “you can’t meaningfully discuss the future of the land and water, if you don’t begin by acknowledging it.” To have the Premier and three other members of the provincial cabinet of the Government of Alberta come to a community to talk about the future of the mountains, land and water, and not acknowledge the Blood Tribe, Siksika, Pikaani, Stoney Nakoda, and others is unforgivable. Especially when members of those communities have expressed legitimate concerns about the redevelopment of coal projects in the eastern slopes.