One of the most vocal municipal opponents to allowing open pit coal mines on the eastern slopes is happy the Province has reinstated the 1976 Coal Policy.

But High River Mayor Craig Snodgrass says it's not a complete victory.

"This was our, the original ask that we wanted to get the policy reinstated and begin some public consultation and we've got that part but we're still looking for the stop work order on all the existing exploration because that's where activity started to happen just before and immediately after the rescindment of the policy," he says. "We're still looking for support through all the municipalities on getting the stop work order done."

Snodgrass says he's grateful to energy minister Sonya Savage and the government of Alberta for getting the process reset so it can be built back properly.

He says Savage's office reached out to him right after the announcement asking him for feedback on how consultations should be done.

"They phoned me and we started to share a few ideas on the public consultation and they said they'd be back in touch with me and I've got a couple other individuals that I want to be at the table sharing our views as to how the public consultation takes place," the mayor says. "I think it's very important that it does not get handled by the government of Alberta or the Alberta Energy Regulator."

He says it needs to be done by a third party and completely separate from government or industry.

Questions, comments or story ideas? e-mail news@okotoksonline.com