The Alberta committee of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE AB) is a welcoming and diverse group of almost 200 healthcare professionals committed to protecting our environment to protect our health. Our committee is co-chaired by Dr. Julia Sawatzky and Dr. Stephen Wilton.

Leveraging our health expertise, we advocate for evidence-based solutions to environmental threats, such as coal mining, methane emissions, and orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells.

These problems disproportionately harm people who have the fewest resources to adapt. We collectively address these environmental injustices by amplifying our trusted voices through CAPE.

Our Initiatives

CAPE AB has recently engaged in:

• Successfully advocating with allies for the groundbreaking phase out of coal-fired power in Alberta, preventing hundreds of hospitalizations and premature deaths, averting thousands of days of breathing difficulties, and saving billions of dollars in healthcare costs.
• Opposing new coal mining and the expansion of existing mines, including proposed projects in the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies and the planned expansion of the Vista Coal Mine. 
• Pushing for stronger action on methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas with serious climate and health impacts, through research, public engagement, and policy change.
• Collaborating with the Polluter Pays network to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for the full costs of environmental damage from orphaned and abandoned wells, ensuring that cleanup and remediation are not left to taxpayers.