For the second time this fall, Canada’s National Energy Boardhas served notice it will not halt natural gas projects to awaitresolutions of age-old Indian grievances and issued a plea for bothsides to make peace for the good of all concerned. It still is notclear, however, if the new Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline –gassed and ready to go — will actually start operations Dec. 1.

The signal arrived in an approval of a second spur, called theSaint John Lateral, off the new M&NE, to serve domesticcustomers in New Brunswick along its route to New England from theSable Offshore Energy Project. The NEB handed down the decisioneven though the M&NE mainline remained closed as a result of asuccessful native appeal of a due-process issue to the CanadianFederal Court of Appeal. In approving the C$93 million (US$62million) lateral, the NEB acknowledged that hard feelings arespreading in the native community over alleged failures to respondto age-old aboriginal rights claims to territory and self-governingpower.

The Union of New Brunswick Indians vented its frustrations bywithdrawing its intervention in the second lateral pipeline case atthe same time its Chief Benjamin Paul delivered a protest speech.

The NEB observed that before aboriginal passions in AtlanticCanada hit this fall’s highs, the Indian union reached a writtenmemorandum of understanding with M&NE on native angles to theSaint John Lateral. M&NE’s actions included crafting a routearound three areas claimed as especially important to the natives.

The board said the memorandum “provides a means for addressingthe UNBI’s concerns,” at least so far as they directly involve thegas pipeline. Rather than act on protests calling for Canadianfederal and provincial government authorities to halt industrialexpansion until native rights and compensation for wider claims canbe settled, the NEB repeated a message it delivered in amid-October approval of the first M&NE spur, the HalifaxLateral in Nova Scotia. The NEB suggested the industry is on theright track by working out accommodations to particular projectswithout being drawn into wider, highly political issues in AtlanticCanada. The board said it “strongly supports M&NE’s commitmentto dialogue and believes the building of trust and respect betweenM&NE and the UNBI is more likely to occur if the parties arriveat their own solutions.”

M&NE, meanwhile, set a new target of Dec. 1 for commencingdeliveries, matching a date established by an approval for startupon the U.S. side of the border by Washington’s Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission. The NEB gave no sign when it will make adecision. The pipeline stayed in limbo, “purged and packed” orcleaned out and full of gas following completion of construction onschedule Nov. 1, while a procedural review continued.

The review centers on a ruling by the Canadian appeal court thatthe NEB and M&NE violated a condition of the pipeline’sapproval that required an agreement to cooperate on native impactstudies. Much of Atlantic Canada has chosen up sides in thedispute.

The Mi’kmaq natives, other Indian groups and environmentalistsmaintain a vital issue of principle is at stake – plus C$147million (US$98 million), chiefly in compensation for disturbance ofterritory even though there has been no settlement or courtdecision saying the land involved is aboriginal. On the other side,a long lineup of business, labor and provincial governmentinterests backs M&NE’s case that the native issue is narrow andshould not affect the project.The case has taken on nationaldimensions in Canada, where friction is worsening between nativecommunities and governments with industries caught in the middle.The M&NE case has made bedfellows out of even Alliance Pipelineand TransCanada PipeLines, with the arch-rivals both urging the NEBnot to set any precedents that could affect relations between theirconstruction or expansion projects and native communities alongtheir routes.

Meanwhile, industry watchers caution that the M&NEpipeline’s future has effectively become a political football andthe decision may not be the NEB’s to make after all. The last stepfor new certificates is what is usually routine approval from themore politically-oriented Canadian central energy administration.While the volume has been turned up on the public protest mountedby the Indian groups, those closest to the M&NE case have grownincreasingly quiet.

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