Growers at provincial water session angry at Alberta's support for foreign coal grubbers at Grassy Mountain

Government reps know the answers, but won't reveal them

They weren’t expecting this . . .

The Alberta government representatives had no doubt hoped last night's "water availability" meeting in Lethbridge would be the usual dull technical forecast for the coming season's prospects for irrigators. Instead, the unexpectedly large crowd of growers showed a deep concern over the negative water impacts of the proposed coal mine at Grassy Mountain, at the heart of the Crowsnest and Oldman River watersheds.

Environment Minister Rebecca Shultz had to punt to her bureaucrats the question of just what her department would do in response to the auditor-general's damning report on the non-management of Alberta's surface water. They were working on it, was the non-reassuring response.

Worse was her evasion of Chris Spearman's polite and respectful query: "Is our Alberta government prepared to sacrifice the agrifood industry for a coal mine?" MLA Grant Hunter was visibly annoyed by the question. He should be, since an honest answer would be catastrophic to his reelection prospects in Taber-Warner where there are considerably more progressive farmers than hillbillies nostalgic for the good old days of coal dust and Friday night brawls in the local saloons.

Spearman, former mayor of Lethbridge and team leader of the new Water For Food group, was thanked for his questions by many after the meeting was over, delaying his return to his home in the foothills of the Alberta Rockies.