TransCanada has announced they're cancelling three of their coal contracts due to the provincial government's policies.

In November, Premier Rachel Notley promised that no one should disproportionately carry the cost of phasing out coal-fired electricity plants, but Wildrose Shadow Electricity and Renewables Minister Don MacIntyre says communities like Hanna are being punished by bad NDP policy.

"The Sheerness power plant near Hanna was projected to stay open beyond 2030, and they even have a record of heavy investments in clean air technology. They employ about 250 workers in Hanna. It is the major industry in that town. Now we have an industry decision being made by TransCanada that this is no longer viable."

MacIntyre says the government has failed to plan ahead for communities like Hanna, where many will soon be out of work.

"This three-billion dollar carbon tax has filled an awful lot of Albertans with uncertainty and now it's destroyed job security for these 250 workers in Hanna. This government should have looked forward. They should have ensured that there was some kind of plan in place for these workers and their families before it taxed this community out of existence."

He says the citizens of Alberta are not being protected, and he wants the NDP to look at how their changes are impacting the economy.

"I would like to see this government stop, back up, and do some sort of cost-benefit analysis and socio-economic analysis of the changes that they're making to our economy. They are hurting jobs at a time when we need every single worker working in this province regardless of the kind of industry they're in."

MacIntyre says the government has villified coal to the point of being ridiculous and are killing jobs that Alberta needs. He says the government is not thinking about people and the human cost of their actions is staggering.