Technical Memorandum

TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM Review of Tent Mountain Terms of Reference and Issues of Federal Jurisdiction on behalf of Kainai and Siksika Nations Prepared By: Firelight Research Inc. (Susan Leech, MSc, RPBio; Rachel Ford, MSc) Submitted To: Kainai (Blood Tribe) and Siksika Nation Date: April 5 2021 1.Overview Montem Resources Alberta Operations Ltd (Montem) has recently submitted information to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for an assessment regarding the resumption of coal mining activities on their Tent Mountain property (Tent Mountain Project or the Project). The proposed coal mine was operational from 1948 to 1983, at which point activities moved into care and maintenance. Montem currently holds an Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act approval for monitoring and closure operations at the minesite and does not hold any active mining licenses. In January 2021, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) determined that the resumption of activities on the site would require an additional environmental assessment in order to amend the existing approval. The AER determined that previously operated mine pits were effectively abandoned.1 Montem’s proposed activities at Tent Mountain include extracting raw coal through a combination of truck and shovel, processing the coal onsite, and transporting it via truck along an existing road to a railway in British Columbia. The Project will take place within the existing permitted boundary of Alberta Mine Permit C85-16G (750 ha in size), within which current disturbance equals 363 ha.2 Montem is proposing to move the Coal Processing and Handling facility (CHPP) to a site adjacent to the Mine within the Mine Permit Area. The CHPP uses a combination of crushing, screening and gravity separation of waste rock from coal.3 Processed coal will be transported north along an existing road to rail, with the coal loading site located 1 Alberta Energy Regulator January 8, 2021 letter to Proponent. Montem Resources Alberta Operations Ltd. Tent Mountain Mine - Environmental Impact Assessment Report Required. Accessed March 29, 2021 from https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/environmental-assessment-montem-tent-mountain 2 Montem Resources Ltd., 2021. Proposed Terms of Reference Environmental Impact Assessment Report for Montem Resources Proposed Tent Mountain Project. Feb. 3 2021, p. 3. 3 Montem Resources Alberta Operations Ltd. Tent Mountain Project. Resuming Activities - Tent Mountain Mine Coal Handling and Processing Plant. Project Description Project Summary Table. February 2021. within the province of British Columbia. It is unclear whether upgrades will be required to the existing road to support heavy truck activity. Montem proposes to extract 1.8 million tonnes of coal per year from the site, an amount that equates to 4,931 tonnes per day if the mine is operating 365 days per year. This level of extraction is just under the threshold for a federal assessment by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), which is 5,000 tonnes per day. If the mine were to operate for 360 days per year, it would hit that daily threshold in order to produce its stated annual goal. Mine activities will also include management of waste rock, surface and groundwater contaminant management, and management of fines. It is not clear if the Project will require a camp onsite, nor is it clear how many trips will be required along the road each day to move the product. As noted in the Alberta Energy Regulator’s letter dated January 8 2021, the proposed Project is located within an area with known unique environmental and socioeconomic characteristics,4 and has the potential to have important impacts to wildlife, water quality and cultural values that are not accounted for in any of publicly available documents to date, including specific wildlife species that are federally listed as endangered, threatened, or of special concern under the 2003 Species at Risk Act (SARA). The Project is located adjacent to Provincial Parks and within the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan area, in a basin closed to new water licenses.5 Based on documents reviewed to develop this memo, the proposed Project has the potential to have significant impacts to important resources and values within the Project footprint, which spans Alberta and British Columbia. Specifically, the Project has the potential to: ● Increase the risk of impacts to water quality and aquatic life, including two federally- listed fish species (westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout); ● Substantially increase the zone of influence around the mine due to noise (from both mining activities and the CHPP), dust, road haulage, and other sensory disturbances; ● Reduce or eliminate use of the existing footprint for wildlife movement, including federally protected and wide-ranging species such as grizzly bear and wolverine; ● Impact habitat for other federally-listed species at risk, including whitebark pine, limber pine, American badger, little brown myotis, western toad, northern leopard frog; ● Impact habitat for migratory birds in the area, some of which are also federally-listed species at risk; ● Impact habitat connectivity through a substantial increase in road use to move processed coal out of the footprint. Furthermore, the Project has a high likelihood of impacting the ability of Kainai and Siksika Nations to practice their constitutionally protected rights within this area. The area that includes Tent Mountain has been used for generations by both Nations for harvesting, travel, trade, and ceremony. The proposed Project has the potential to impact habitat for species of cultural importance, including the species at risk listed above as well as mountain goat, moose, deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and numerous food and medicinal plants. Cumulative effects from farming, coal mining, urban development, oil and gas extraction and forestry in other parts of Kainai and Siksika territory mean that Crowsnest Pass and the Elk Valley is of particular 4 Alberta Energy Regulator January 8, 2021 letter to Proponent. Montem Resources Alberta Operations Ltd. Tent Mountain Mine - Environmental Impact Assessment Report Required. Accessed March 29, 2021 from https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/environmental-assessment-montem-tent-mountain 5 Montem does not currently have any Water Act approval or License(s). importance to the Nations, as it is one of the few areas within Blackfoot territory that can still be used for the practice of Treaty-protected rights. Kainai and Siksika’s Treaty-protected rights within this area are already at risk from at least nine other existing and/or proposed mining operations nearby. In addition to the extensive issues of federal jurisdiction within the proposed Tent Mountain Project area, both Nations are concerned about the level of detail provided by the Proponent in their draft Terms of Reference. The draft TOR prepared by Montem Resources contains no project-specific information or any specific information about communities that may be affected by the Project, making it very difficult to evaluate the scope of the Project or what they will assess. The Proponent’s Project Summary document does not explain the spatial and temporal scope of proposed activities, current activities, or the ecological or social environment, and describes a wholly inadequate cumulative effects assessment scope. Neither the draft TOR nor the Project Summary document discusses the historic or current use of the project area by the Kainai or Siksika Nations. The draft TOR submitted by the Proponent provides little more detail than the template published by the Government of Alberta meant to guide a proponent in developing a TOR for a project. This lack of care and consideration on the part of the Proponent raises very serious concerns for both Nations, as it suggests that the Proponent regards this assessment as a checkbox exercise, rather than the very important process of identifying impacts to values in the Project area and ensuring adequate mitigation measures are in place to address these impacts. To further explore these overarching concerns, this memo outlines the deficiencies in the Draft Terms of Reference for the Proposed Tent Mountain Mine submitted by Montem Resources to the Government of Alberta, highlighting the Proponent’s failure to tailor the TOR to the proposed Project and concerns with the proposed scope of the cumulative effects assessment. It further identifies concerns that the Proponent has not sufficiently accounted for potential impacts of the proposed Project on values, culture, and rights in the Project area. Finally, it provides an analysis of the potential adverse effects of the Tent Mountain mine on matters that fall within federal jurisdiction should it go forward, including fish, species at risk, migratory birds, and impacts to Treaty-protected Indigenous rights, highlighting the transboundary considerations that must be taken into account to fully assess these potential adverse effects. The information used to inform this review is limited to public information provided by the Proponent and posted on the Government of Alberta’s Environmental Impact Assessment phase, and includes the draft Terms of Reference, map of Project area, and the Project Summary document. Despite the deficiencies in the information provided, it is clear from reviewing the available documentation and information on the public record that the proposed Project will have important and as yet unaccounted for impacts to matters of federal concern,6 pointing to a strong rationale for moving

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