Coal is devastating to human health and our climate. It’s responsible for more than 800,000 premature deaths a year and the source of nearly half of the world’s carbon emissions. 

Despite coal’s dangerous track record, Coalspur wants to expand its Vista coal mine, located near Jasper Alberta. The Vista Mine is already the largest thermal coal mine in Canada. If the expansion goes ahead, it will lead to significant downstream carbon emissions. 

And that’s not all. Since the company first announced plans for expansion, new information has emerged about the full scale of it ambitions — including plans for an underground mine that the company did not previously disclose to the Minister. 

In light of this new information, an environmental assessment must be insisted so that full impacts can be measured, analyzed, and reduced wherever possible. If the Minister fails to order an environmental assessment, the project will likely be approved. This is due to the guaranteed approval of an inadequate provincial-level assessment, which will not consider impacts on matters of federal jurisdiction. This includes the following:

• Impacts on indigenous rights
• Impacts caused by “downstream” emissions
• Impacts on species protected under the federal endangered species legislation (SARA)
• Impacts on fish habitat including fish bearing tributaries 

 Urge Minister Wilkinson to reconsider ordering an assessment of the Vista Mine expansion.