High River council is asking other municipalities to get on board and oppose coal mining on the eastern slopes.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says they're also urging the Premier Jason Kenney and Energy minister Sonya Savage to put a stop to all work that's still underway.

"Here we are we're starting a public consultation as to whether this mining is even going to take place down there, so there's really no point in doing any exploration until we have those answers because the exploration causes a tonne of damage and affects the landscape, affects the watershed so let's just put a stop to it right now until we get through this public consultation piece, until the government actually knows what it's going to do," Mayor Snodgrass says.

He says stopping the work would go a long way to giving the consultations credibility and legitimacy.

Town council is also urging all municipalities in Alberta to make their voices known on the issue of open pit coal mining on the eastern slopes.

Snodgrass says the Province doesn't seem to want to rewind the part they've already started saying it's the mess they created and the mess they need to clean up.

"In order to get some confidence and trust in this consultation process, that's the other piece as to why it's so important for the government to put a halt on all this exploration and yes the government can do it within the AER's (Alberta Energy Regulator's) department," he says. "Minister Savage can direct the AER to put a stop to it."

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