Opinion: Politics should not block contributions of coal mining – by Robin Campbell (Calgary Herald – August 26, 2020)

https://calgaryherald.com/

Robin Campbell is president of the Coal Association of Canada.

It is high time that we, as individuals, as communities and especially as governments, recognize and appreciate the positive contributions of coal mining in Canada.

Currently, the message is skewed and riddled with inaccurate depictions of coal mines, often ignoring the facts and painting the entire global industry with one brush. Coal mining has become a hot button issue and we are seeing elected officials overturning decisions based on external pressures and ignoring expert analysis from government agencies.

The result is harm to coal mining communities, threats to the full supply chain from shovel to ship, increased regulatory uncertainty and a further chill on investment in Canada’s resource sector that has been worsening over the past number of years.

Last month, the minister of environment and climate change reversed his Dec. 20, 2019, decision not to designate the Vista Coal Expansion Activities (Phase II) (the Project) under the Impact Assessment Act.

This decision is at odds with the conclusions stated in the analysis report completed by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, both in December 2019 and July 2020.

For the rest of this column: https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-politics-should-not-block-contributions-of-coal-mining