The poor Alberta government. At times, they come across as a hapless bunch of hayseeds—easy prey for any P.T. Barnum-style huckster who shows up on our doorstep.
In recent years, Alberta’s highest-profile and most cringeworthy blunders have piled up like bad investments:
- In 2022, the United Conservative Party (UCP) government under Premier Danielle Smith bought a Turkish-made substitute for Tylenol amid a national shortage. The government paid $70 million up front but received only $21 million worth of product. By 2023, hospitals stopped using the tablets after it was determined the product posed health risks to infants. Costly.
- In 2020, then-premier Jason Kenney committed $1.3 billion in taxpayer money to underwrite the Keystone XL pipeline—just months before TC Energy Corp. pulled the plug. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Albertans are still paying for it.
- The government announced support for celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary’s plan to build the “world’s largest” artificial intelligence data centre near Grande Prairie—without consulting the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. The First Nation now alleges the project infringes on its Treaty 8 rights. O’Leary is an outspoken fan of Donald Trump and an advocate for “economic union” with the U.S.
The government is now entangled in a multibillion-dollar legal mess over its on-again, off-again approach to coal mining in the eastern slopes of the Rockies—a fiasco that could cost Alberta taxpayers dearly.
It began in 2020, when the UCP quietly rescinded the long-standing coal policy introduced by Premier Peter Lougheed in 1976, opening up the mountains to more mining. Public backlash was swift and fierce, and restrictions were reimposed in 2022.
But the damage had been done. Several foreign mining firms filed lawsuits, alleging the flip-flop caused financial losses and amounted to “de facto expropriation” of their assets. Their total claims? Up to $15 billion—a figure taxpayers could ultimately be forced to cover.
The first case goes to trial on April 25 and involves four companies: Cabin Ridge Holdings Ltd. and Cabin Ridge Project Ltd.; Atrum Coal Ltd. and its subsidiary, Elan Coal Ltd.; Black Eagle Mining Corp.; and Evolve Power Ltd., formerly Montem Resources Ltd.
A fifth company, Northback Holdings, filed its own lawsuit in June 2024. That case will be heard separately.
Smith acknowledged in January that the province lifted a ban on new coal exploration because of the pending lawsuits. “We have to make sure that the taxpayers are protected,” she told reporters.
But in doing so, the government may have effectively conceded defeat—pre-emptively trying to limit damages before the courts even weigh in. Some observers wonder if the real motive is to avoid embarrassing revelations about what promises were made behind closed doors.
Among the plaintiffs is Northback Holdings, the company behind the controversial Grassy Mountain project near Crowsnest Pass. Formerly known as Benga Mining, Northback is owned by Hancock Prospecting Pty., the Australian mining empire of billionaire Gina Rinehart.
If Alberta seems out of its league in this fight, it’s because it is, especially when going up against mining royalty like Rinehart.
She is Australia’s richest person and one of the 10 wealthiest women in the world, with a fortune of US$29 billion, according to Forbes. She inherited the company from her father, Lang Hancock, and aggressively expanded it during the iron ore boom of the early 2000s.
She’s also no stranger to the courtroom.
In 1988, Hancock established the $5-billion Hope Margaret Hancock Trust, naming Rinehart as trustee and her four grandchildren as beneficiaries. In 2011, the children sued to have her removed, accusing her of mismanagement. After four years, daughter Bianca was named trustee, but the legal battle over the family fortune continues.
Rinehart’s earlier lawsuit against her stepmother, Rose Porteous, dragged on for 14 years. Rinehart accused Porteous of marrying Hancock for his money and “nagging him to death.” Porteous denied the claims. Court documents revealed that Hancock, days before his death, had taken out a restraining order to prevent Porteous from pressuring him to change his will. Rinehart’s company ultimately retained the mining tenements at the heart of the dispute.
Her record on the environment is equally controversial. She founded ANDEV (Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision), a pro-mining lobby group. She personally sponsored the Australian speaking tours of climate change denier Christopher Monckton.
In 2012, she opposed a federal 30 per cent “super profits” tax on mining, which was repealed in 2014, and fought against a proposed cap-and-trade emissions system for greenhouse gases. She’s also a vocal supporter of Western Australian separatism.
Time and again, Alberta’s government has fallen for bold promises from outsiders—only to be left holding the bag. Whether it’s bad medicine, billion-dollar boondoggles or multinational coal giants, the cost keeps landing squarely on the shoulders of taxpayers.
In this high-stakes game, the UCP is playing T-ball while the big leagues roll into town.
Doug Firby is an award-winning editorial writer with over four decades of experience working for newspapers, magazines and online publications in Ontario and western Canada. Previously, he served as Editorial Page Editor at the Calgary Herald.
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