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The 180

Residents of Alberta coal town worry they're living in a place without a future

In November, the Alberta government announced a plan to phase out coal-fired power plants like the one just outside Hanna. We stopped by on the day TransCanada Corporation said it would be backing out of its deal to buy power from the plant, and found a town running out of reasons to be optimistic.
CBC News ·
Dean Girodat has worked at the Sheerness coal mine in Hanna, Alberta for over a decade. (Provided by Dean Girodat)
The 1808:10Residents of Alberta coal town worry they're living in a place without a future

In Hanna, Alberta, people have been bracing for bad news for months. 

In November, the province announced a plan to phase out coal-fired power plants, like the one just outside Hanna, by 2030. The power plant — and the coal mine that supplies it — are the town's major employers, and residents worried it wouldn't be long before they started to feel the effects. 

In November, the Alberta government announced a plan to phase out coal-fired power plants like this one outside of Hanna. Residents of the small community say once the coal mine and the power plant are gone, there will be little left in Hanna.
In November, the Alberta government announced a plan to phase out coal-fired power plants like this one outside of Hanna. Residents of the small community say once the coal mine and the power plant are gone, there will be little left in Hanna. (CBC/Geoff Turner)

Those fears got a lot more specific when TransCanada Corp. announced, this week, that it would be backing out of its deals to purchase power from three coal-fired power plants in Alberta, including Hanna's. 

Dean Girodat has worked at the mine for more than a decade, and says if it and the plant close, it can only mean one thing for his town. 

There won't be a Hanna... if that money goes out of our community I've got a feeling our community will shut right down.- Dean Girodat, Hanna, Alberta

It's not just mine and plant employees who fear for the fate of the town. Local schoolteacher Debbie Corry says even the possibility of the mine and the plant closing down is starting to affect life in the rest of the community. 

She says families have been leaving Hanna in search of better prospects for years now, and it's about to get much worse. The number of students in her school is dwindling, and since Alberta schools are funded on a per-student basis, the school's funding and the range of programming they can afford to offer have dropped as well. 

"There's nothing written in stone yet, but [people are] just afraid that this is going to happen," says Corry. "They're afraid they're going to close that mine, and they really don't know what to do, so they do what's best for their families."

Our coal plant, they're talking ten years. Well, if you're a young family, and if you've got a 20-year mortgage on a beautiful house, do you wait out the ten years and try and sell it when everyone else is selling it, or do you cut and run?- Debbie Corry, Hanna, Alberta

Corry says when people talk about cutting carbon emissions, it's easy to forget the real people behind industries like coal. 

"People are trying to save the planet and shut down the coal mines, but they don't see the effect it has on the people," she says. 

"They lose their job, they have to move. They don't have enough money to pay their mortgage. That's how it affects people."

To hear more of The 180's visit to Hanna, Alberta, click the play button above.

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