Kakfwi unapologetic after pipeline delay decision
Last updated Apr 29 2005 08:49 AM CDT
CBC News
north.cbc.ca
YELLOWKNIFE – At least one aboriginal negotiator says he's willing to call Imperial Oil's bluff that it's going to put the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project on hold.
[ Bluff or deja vue? We've been down this road before. - DPR ]
The oil companies behind the proposed natural gas pipeline announced Thursday they were going to put engineering and preparation work for the $7 billion project on hold– though they will continue to negotiate through the regulatory process.
Imperial Oil, the lead proponent of the project, says it won't resume until the company is able to come to agreements with aboriginal organizations about access to their land, and benefits for their people.
Mike Yeager, a senior vice-president with Imperial Oil, says First Nations are simply asking for too much.
"We're talking about something here that is many, many fold from what we were expecting and into the hundreds of millions of dollars," he said Thursday.
But former N.W.T. premier Stephen Kakfwi, who's now chief negotiator for his home community of Fort Good Hope, is unapologetic about what he's asking for.
Kakfwi says the company has to compensate aboriginal organizations not just as land owners but as governments in their own right.
"Unless we do something today, all the oil and gas will be gone from our land and everybody will get rich except us," he says.
Yeager says aboriginal people expect the 1,300-kilometre natural gas pipeline to provide them with enough income to address existing problems such as a chronic shortage of housing.
He argues it's government that needs to address these social and economic issues, using the taxes and royalties the project will generate.
Territory offers olive branch
The territorial government is sounding more conciliatory, offering to bring the two sides together.
Brendan Bell, the minister of industry, tourism and investment, calls the Imperial Oil decision a wake up call for the N.W.T.
Bell says he understands Imperial's position and says he thinks the territorial government can help broker a deal on access agreements.
"Governments are going to have to get involved, the federal government, our government, to work with the two parties," he say.
"Of course, we're not privy to the negotiations but I think we need to sit down and find out where the holdups are and talk about coming up with a defined time frame and timeline for when these things can be resolved and what kinds of things should be in access agreements and those that shouldn't be in access agreements and move the bars."
Imperial Oil has said it wants to see what it calls substantial progress in signing access agreements before moving on to public hearings on the project.
The company is talking about offering a common access agreement to all aboriginal organizations to consider, rather than the piecemeal approach to agreements it has been pursuing until now.
Regulatory process to be reviewed?
The federal government's regulatory process has come under fire as part of Imperial's decision to delay the pipeline.
The company expected to have hearings underway by now, but is still answering more than 1,200 questions submitted by Ottawa, aboriginal groups, and others as part of the environmental assessment. More questions are expected next month.
"We are already months behind what our expectations were about how this would be carried out," says Mike Yeager. The delay is important to Imperial because the northern construction season is just three months long, and it would be in the dead of winter.
Liseanne Forand, an assistant deputy minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, agrees there's a need for more co-ordination among government departments asking questions at this stage, and she's looking for ways to streamline the process.
"But the bottom line to all of this really is we need to have a rigorous environmental assessment and regulatory process that all northerners and all Canadians will be able to count on in the end," says Forand, who's department oversees the process.
Imperial Oil is also worried about how long it will take to get permits once the environmental assessment is done. |
