Metallurgical coal isn't needed to make steel - there are alternatives

Many comments have pointed to the need for metallurgical coal to make steel. We don't need coal to make steel!
The reality is that steel can and already is made without coal, even right here in Canada. Steelmaking with iron ore, natural gas and electricity is a well developed technology that has been in use for 50 years. In this process, natural gas is reformed to make hydrogen gas, which makes it easy to replace natural gas with hydrogen made from renewable electricity as a transitional technology, reducing carbon emissions very significantly relative to coal-based steelmaking.
In the longer term, it's clear that we need to move to entirely hydrogen-based steelmaking globally. Steelmaking is responsible for roughly 5% of global carbon emissions. The increased energy cost to use renewable energy is not that large (adding roughly 10% to the price of steel). We need to be preparing now for a world where we stop using metallurgical coal. To do otherwise is to ignore the reality of our climate emergency. I have written in more detail about this issue at Wildsight. (https://wildsight.ca/blog/2020/06/01/do-we-really-need-steelmaking-coal/)
With proposed coal mining at Castle that would continue until 2060, we need to be considering climate issues in the assessment of the proposed project.
With significant carbon emissions directly from the mines, the need to transition away from steelmaking coal well before 2060, not to mention the water pollution issues and their international impacts, it is essential that the Minister designate the Castle project for a federal assessment.