The Alberta government will pay $95 million to an Australian coal company as part of a legal settlement over changes to the province’s coal policy, according to a recent note to the company’s shareholders.
Evolve Power said in the note it is “pleased to announce” the financial details of the settlement, which the province agreed to in principle earlier this year.
The province also agreed to a $143-million settlement with another company, Atrum Coal, earlier this year.
Evolve and Atrum were among several coal companies that had sued the province in 2023 over the way the provincial government has shifted Alberta’s coal policies.
In 2020, the UCP government rescinded the province’s longstanding coal policy, which had been established in 1976 under then-premier Peter Lougheed and had placed blanket environmental protections across wide swaths of the Rocky Mountains.
In 2021, amid widespread public outcry from a diverse group of opponents — including ranchers, environmentalists, First Nations, and musicians like Corb Lund — the government temporarily re-instated the old policy, pending public consultations.
In 2022, after carrying out those consultations, the government decided to stick with the 1976 coal policy after all, but did allow four “advanced projects” to continue through the regulatory process.
In 2023, a group of coal companies, including Evolve and Atrum, sued the government for $15 billion in damages, arguing the policy changes in 2020 had encouraged them to buy land and leases for coal mining projects, only for the rules to change again and effectively put some of those projects on ice.
In June 2024, Northback Holdings, the company behind the proposed Grassy Mountain coal project , also launched a separate claim for damages that related to regulatory processes and was to be heard separately.
In late 2024, the provincial government announced plans to change the province’s coal policy yet again, and, in early 2025, it lifted a ban on coal exploration in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
At the time, Premier Danielle Smith said the changes were aimed, in part, at protecting taxpayers from massive legal payouts related to the lawsuits.
She re-iterated that at a town hall event in southern Alberta in June.
“If we do nothing, then we are told we’ll likely lose those cases and have to pay [$15 billion],” she told a crowd of roughly 500 people in Fort Macleod, Alta.
As part of its settlement deal, Evolve Power (through its subsidiary Montem Resources) agreed to surrender the coal leases it had previously obtained for two of its projects, named Chinook and Greenfield.
“The Chinook and Greenfield coal leases and freehold mineral rights to be transferred to Alberta represent all of Montem’s Alberta coal assets, save and except for its Tent Mountain Project,” the note to investors says.
“The board of directors, based on legal advice, believe this settlement is the best possible outcome having regard to the government’s actions and the impact on Montem.”
The company at one time had planned to mine coal on Tent Mountain in southwestern Alberta, then changed course in 2021 and sought to develop a pumped-hydro energy storage facility at the site. In early 2025, it gave up on that idea, too, and sold the pumped-hydro project to TransAlta.
Evolve Power CEO Peter Doyle told CBC News he could not comment further on the settlement, beyond what was said in the note to investors.
In a written statement, a spokesperson for Energy Minister Brian Jean’s office said the government “has no intention to further lease these rights [that Evolve surrendered], consistent with our stated commitment to protect the foothills and Rocky Mountains.”
Alberta NDP environment critic Sarah Elmeligi says the lawsuits are the result of a UCP government that “can’t make sense of their own decisions.”
“Their flip flopping on coal exploration and permitting is now costing Albertans over $200 million,” she said in an email.
“That’s money that could have gone to protecting and reclaiming our headwaters, or teachers, schools, hospitals, or to helping families, but instead it’s going to another coal company.”
With legal action from other coal companies still outstanding, she added, the “final price tag is still unknown.”
Kennedy Halvorson, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA), said it’s frustrating to see public dollars used for another major payout to a coal company.
“It’s disappointing to see,” she said. “I imagine everyone can think of better uses for this money.”
The AWA has also called for more transparency on the coal lawsuits, arguing Albertans are being “left in the dark.”
The spokesperson for Jean’s office said the terms of the settlements “remain privileged” and the government is legally limited in what it can say about them, beyond what the companies reveal themselves.
“We cannot discuss details related to the settlements, related discussions, or any other active litigation at this time,” the spokesperson said.
“That said, the Government of Alberta is working to conclude these matters fairly; the outcome of these settlements will be consistent with Albertans’ desires and best interests.”
The spokesperson also said the coal companies’ lawsuits cited correspondence from 2016 between the NDP government at the time and the Alberta Energy Regulator, discussing the potential for a surface-mine application to be allowed in an area where one “would not normally be considered” under the 1976 coal policy.
