Keepers of the Water Council stands for the Water, Fish, and all our relations against coal

To: the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, Coalspur Mines Ltd., and interested parties

RE: Project #80731 Coalspur Vista Mine expansion

Keepers of the Water is an Indigenous led organization that is comprised of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples; environmental groups; concerned citizens; and communities working together for the protection of water, air and land - and thus, for all living things today and tomorrow. Keepers of the Water works with Indigenous communities who are working to instill Indigenous water governance, with policy, legislation, natural law, traditional knowledge and also looking at ways bodies of water are being managed, this in turn provides the solutions to ensuring water is kept safe now and for future generations. Keepers of the Water was founded in 2006 by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who have walked alongside each other guided by Indigenous wisdom, knowledge, science, and culture. Additionally, our 2006 Declaration ratified in 2007 asserts the sacredness of water and our mandate to honour and protect her.

We thank the Government of Canada for providing environmental assessment for this project, focusing on fostering sustainability, science and Indigenous Knowledge, public engagement, and Reconciliation.  We need this federal assessment in particular because the Province of Alberta has shown industry bias, lowered environmental monitoring and independent science inputs, and exposed their lack of true sustainability measures for many decades on so many different files. The current government of Alberta has recently cut hundreds of positions in environmental monitoring (Alberta Environment) and the Alberta Energy Regulator.

The following represent our comments on the project description (summary version) as provided by Coalspur Mines Ltd., section by section

(Please see enclosed document: KotW comments on CV project desc.pdf)