Country musician and environmental advocate Corb Lund says his campaign against new coal mining in Alberta is far from over after Elections Alberta rejected the citizen petition his group spent months organizing.
Lund, who leads the Water Not Coal campaign, said he is considering asking the courts to review the decision, arguing that there are unanswered questions about how Elections Alberta verified petition signatures.
“We’re not going anywhere on this,” Lund said, adding that a judicial review could be filed in the coming days.
The petition was intended to force Premier Danielle Smith’s government to address public concerns over new coal mining projects on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. If successful, it would have required the United Conservative Party government to either consider legislation banning new coal mining or put the issue to a provincewide referendum.
To qualify, the campaign needed nearly 178,000 valid signatures from eligible Albertans.
According to Lund, volunteers collected more than 207,000 signatures, with Elections Alberta initially recognizing about 196,000 as valid. However, after conducting statistical verification checks, the agency estimated that only 172,000 signatures could be confirmed, leaving the petition below the required threshold.
Lund has questioned whether the verification process was carried out properly.
He said several supporters reported receiving calls from unidentified phone numbers asking them to confirm personal information such as their full name and home address. According to Lund, some people were uncomfortable providing those details because callers did not identify themselves with an official staff verification number.
He believes the campaign followed every rule throughout the signature collection process and says volunteers were carefully trained to ensure all requirements were met.
Elections Alberta, however, defended its procedures.
In a statement, the agency said signatures were only rejected if the contact information provided by a voter was no longer valid or could not be verified. It also clarified that anyone contacted by phone first received a text message notifying them of the verification process.
The agency added that signatures were not rejected simply because someone failed to answer a phone call, respond to an email or return a voicemail.
According to Elections Alberta, the verification process was particularly rigorous because this was the first citizen petition reviewed under enhanced procedures introduced after a major breach of Alberta’s provincial voters list.
Even before the petition was officially rejected, its future had become uncertain. Premier Danielle Smith had already indicated there would not have been enough time to process a successful petition before Alberta’s Oct. 19 referendum, which already includes 10 ballot questions.
Responding to the petition’s failure, Smith said her government has already taken significant steps to address concerns surrounding coal development.
She pointed to the province’s decision to repurchase coal leases and freehold coal rights covering approximately 400 square kilometres of the eastern slopes, as well as policies banning future mountaintop removal and open-pit coal mining. She also highlighted efforts to improve water management through new technologies.
While acknowledging that additional measures may still be considered, Smith said the government remains open to continuing discussions on the issue.
Despite the setback, Lund insists the campaign is not over and says his group will continue exploring every available option to challenge the decision and push for stronger protections against new coal mining in Alberta.
