Pipeline will bring cash to northern Natives

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Joe Handley, Northwest Territories minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, along with Resources deputy minister Robert McLeod, accompanied Premier Stephen Kakfwi to Edmonton last month to promote the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline route as the best way to move Arctic gas to market.

On April 10, Handley and McLeod talked to Sweetgrass about why they believe the N.W.T. will get its pipeline application approved.

They say it is the most economical way to supply Mackenzie Delta gas to North American markets.

The N.W.T. wants gas from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to be piped under the sea to the Mackenzie delta, then piped up the Mackenzie Valley along with Canadian Arctic gas into Alberta.

Both Yukon and Alaska, however, want to ship gas through their territories. They want gas from Prudhoe Bay to be piped along the Alaska Highway, through the Yukon and through northern British Columbia. It is estimated that route would be three times as costly to build. If they get their gas to market first, however, it could devalue the price of gas and cut demand for N.W.T. gas.

The Alaskan senate is proposing Bill 14 to prohibit leases on state-owned "land" in the Beaufort Sea, which means Alaskan gas producers would not be able to use the Mackenzie Valley route.

Handley said the key to the success of the N.W.T. proposal will be the partnerships formed with Aboriginal people, who are nearly all on side, unlike the other jurisdictions where the issue of the pipeline is more contentious.

"They're on side because our position has always been that we'll do this in partnership, not just (to suit the N.W.T. government)."

The Aboriginal Pipeline Group got $500,000 from the NWT government and "have been working hard the past year to put together their business plan of how they're going to have an equity position in the pipeline-they'll be able to own a piece of it.

"So we have, I think, a much more positive, business-like approach in the N.W.T. than is the case in the Yukon, where the Yukon government sort of went on their own without ensuring that all the Aboriginal governments were on side."

That's true of the Yukon's Kaska Dene, who were opposed to an Alaska Highway pipeline, and vowed to fight the deal until their land claim is settled. They announced April 11, however, that they were withdrawing lawsuits against the federal government, in exchange for Ottawa agreeing to resume land claim talks.

The federal government now says it will negotiate with Kaska communities in the Yukon and in northern British Columbia as one unit and will include the Kaska in talks and decisions on resource issues.

The N.W.T. government maintains the Mackenzie Valley pipeline route is shorter, flatter, and safer environmentally.

Handley continued, "(The pipeline is) a key issue for us, especially with President Bush talking about a continental energy policy. . . . We probably have the biggest reserve of natural gas in Canada-we'd better be there."

Although the Canadian federal government has stopped short of endorsing either N.W.T. or Yukon at this point, Handley said he was "very optimistic." If the N.W.T. gets the go-ahead, Handley said an environmental review, which will involve all the Aboriginal governments and land claim groups, could take two years.

"The one area that the proposed pipeline would have to go through where there is no [settled] claim is in the Deh Cho in the southwest corner."

But Deputy Minister McLeod added, "They're signing off on a couple of agreements on protection measures and land management."

They estimate two to four years to settle the land claim, but said the Deh Cho are "supportive" of the pipeline.

Doug Cardinal, a Deh Cho representative for the APG from Hay River, is reported as saying the APG wants 51 per cent ownership of the pipeline to start, and to acquire ownership of all of it as they acquire the expertise to run it. Cardinal admitted that Aboriginal ownership isn't an issue along the laska Yukon route.