The Achilles heel of the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project is showing as its sponsors labor at the delicate diplomacy of obtaining consent from the aboriginal population in the Northwest Territories.

One group, Deh Cho First Nations, with territory along the southern reaches of the project, has served notice that it will refuse to accept standard industry and government practice of settling for private agreements with corporations. In a document sent to the National Energy Board and federal and northern authorities, Grand Chief Herb Norwegian laid out 13 demands ranging from money for hiring expert help to special veto power over the pipeline plan.

The vulnerability of the C$5-billion (US$3.8-billion) Arctic gas project to delay or disruption by its human element was highlighted by TransCanada PipeLines president Hal Kvisle at a fall industry conference in Calgary. Kvisle said, “If the Mackenzie Valley project does not go ahead, the only reason would be regulatory delays or some kind of flare-up on the aboriginal front.”

Norwegian’s document, distributed from the Deh Cho capital of Fort Simpson, warns that Deh Cho “leaders will carefully scrutinize consultation efforts with the view to taking whatever action is necessary if a project proceeds without proper consultation. Some infringed rights may be so integral to the Deh Cho communities that the Deh Cho leaders have a legal right to veto the project.”

Rather than list their priority issues, the Deh Cho reserve rights to identify them as they arise, saying only more disclosures and expert help will enable the community to identify aspects of the project that matter the most to it. When it comes to the securing aboriginal consent, the companies and authorities are told “any formal position of the Deh Cho leaders can only be provided…after we have received full information disclosure, have had adequate time to review the material and have been provided with adequate financial and human resources to conduct our own analysis and develop our positions.”

The declaration from Fort Simpson insists “Deh Cho consultations are more than mere ‘public consultations.’ The consultations with Deh Cho leaders are not limited to stakeholder consultations and public reviews which the proponent and the Crown [the national government] must conduct to fulfill regulatory and legislative requirements…the Crown and the proponent must propose a process in which they will listen to what Deh Cho leaders identify as Deh Cho rights and provide a response that fully and expressly recognizes, addresses and accommodates those rights.”

No government agencies or companies have replied to the Deh Cho manifesto yet. Nor has the native group explained how much money it wants or what issues it will regard as project-breakers. A progress report to the NEB on consultations with a more northerly territorial group, the Sahtu based at Norman Wells, indicates that the project’s envoys to the natives still have to resolve a long list of issues. The document highlighted the depth of concerns even among northern communities that support the Mackenzie Valley project to the extent of participating in a one-third ownership share through a native consortium, the aboriginal Pipeline Group. Acting on a contract with senior Arctic gas partner Imperial Oil, specialists with AMEC Inc. told the board they have been holding community meetings with the Sahtu since February.

The talks, mostly on environmental and socio-economic themes, involved a wide array of unresolved concerns such as industrial noise, increased access for outsiders to resources ranging from wildlife to firewood, accidental imports of predatory southern animal species, job opportunities for women and non-union contractors, labor shortages for northern businesses not involved in the pipeline and unable to compete with its wages, increased alcohol and drug abuse as both money and newcomers enter the Northwest Territories, and the possibility of adding small “taps” to the big pipeline to spread gas heating and cooking to remote small communities. The consultations continue. The Mackenzie Valley project’s sponsors and their contractors aim to incorporate the results into a compulsory document expected to set a standard for large-scale industrial projects in northern Canada, the Arctic pipeline’s environmental impact assessment.

©Copyright 2003 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.