A citizen initiative seeking to prohibit new coal mining in the Eastern Slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains has been declared unsuccessful after falling short of the required number of verified signatures.
Elections Alberta announced July 3 that the Water Not Coal campaign produced an estimated 172,088 verified signatures. The petition required 177,732 signatures, equal to 10 per cent of the votes cast in Alberta’s 2023 provincial election.
Organizers submitted 207,435 signatures when the collection period ended June 10. Elections Alberta reported that 196,088 remained after an initial validation review.
The final number was determined through a statistical verification process that included contacting a sample of people who had signed the petition.
Elections Alberta said entries were rejected for several reasons, including incomplete elector information, invalid dates, duplicate signatures and improperly completed declarations by petition canvassers. Some signatures could not be confirmed because electors could not be contacted, did not respond or were unwilling to verify their information.
No seeded or deliberately false names were found, according to the agency.
The petition proposed legislation that would prevent new coal exploration and mining activity in Alberta’s Eastern Slopes, with exceptions for operations already active as of Jan. 1, 2026.
Country musician and rancher Corb Lund served as the official proponent of the initiative. Organizers have raised questions about the verification process and said they are reviewing their legal options, including the possibility of seeking judicial review.
The result has also prompted discussion about public confidence in Alberta’s citizen initiative system.
Legislative changes that took effect May 1 allowed both the petition proponent and the minister of justice to appoint lawyer-scrutineers to observe the verification process. Those changes applied while the coal petition was already underway.
The timing has contributed to questions among some petition supporters. However, no evidence has been made public showing that the provincial government directed Elections Alberta to reject the petition or interfered with the final result.
Elections Alberta is an independent, non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly and is responsible for administering provincial elections, referendums, recall petitions and citizen initiatives.
The campaign missed the required threshold by approximately 5,644 signatures.
The petition will not advance under the Citizen Initiative Act, although organizers may continue to pursue the issue through political advocacy or the courts.
The Water Not Coal campaign must also file its required financial reports with Elections Alberta by Aug. 10.