I expect this will be new territory for the Government and...

I expect this will be new territory for the Government and mining companies in Canada. Broadly, as I understand it, Canada operates generally in accordance with the general principles of a Westminster system of Government so retrospectivity is not a favoured consequence of Govt decisions. So the compensation path is less likely in my view but not impossible. As to quantum, it is hard to say but it would require the company to make a claim and if put in that circumstance the claim would have to be high claim and adequate to cover what would end up being not just expenditure but would I assume try to include lost potential revenue however that may be calculated. The claim process would be legally expensive for both the company and the Government so it would probably end up being a negotiated outcome. But as I have said I see it as a lower probability.

I think what we can be fairly sure of is that there will be some kind of negotiation to formalise something ranging between a conditional exemption within Cat 2 lands and a revised mining plan that will steralise some of the coal in some very sensitive areas. In the end it was likely anyway even under the scrapped policy that the Development Approval following the Environmental Impact Statement and approval process would have come to such a compromise anyway.
It is just a bottom draw proposition until all of the processes grind through.