The provincial government maintains that a new plan is required because the old coal policy was “largely made obsolete through more modern oversight,” Jennifer Henshaw, press secretary to Energy Minister Sonya Savage, said in an email. In it, the government announced it was replacing the “outdated” 44-year-old coal policy that had prohibited much mining in the Rockies. But the real litmus test will come this fall, when the Alberta government goes back to the drawing board on a new coal policy. At the time, David Luff was a brand new government employee who had been hired the year before to help implement the coal policy and develop a plan for the eastern slopes. Water is not the highest priority; coal development is the highest priority.

Source: thestar August 15, 2021 09:56 UTC