Ottawa offers $2.8B aid for Arctic pipeline
canada.com
Excerpt:
A new target of Nov. 23 was set for a formal decision to advance the $7-billion development into northern pipeline hearings and construction after Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan unveiled the help.
Her offer includes $1.2 billion for the Mackenzie Gas Project's industry sponsors and a $1.6-billion loan guarantee for their northern native partners in the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.
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Sahtu communities ratify pipeline deal, with provisos
Last updated Nov 18 2005 04:46 PM CST
cbc.ca
CBC News
The head of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group is warning that conditions attached to the ratification of an access and benefit agreement for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline could scuttle the deal.
Four of the six Sahtu land corporations ratified an access agreement with Imperial Oil on Thursday.
People in Deline, Tulita and Norman Wells approved the agreement to give the pipeline producers access to their land– but with conditions.
The communities want a greater share of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, the group representing all the aboriginal organizations in the Northwest Territories.
"Take a look at where the pipeline is going and the majority is in the Sahtu and Dehcho area," says Larry Tourangeau, who is with the land corporation in Norman Wells.
Each region's share is proportionate to the amount of the pipeline within it.
The Sahtu has 34 per cent, but it wants four per cent more, which Tourangeau calls a reasonable request.
"It'll bring in a couple of million I guess, and for the folks at the community level that means a lot," he says.
But it took more than a year of negotiations to come up with the current formula.
And Fred Carmichael, head of the APG, believes it would be virtually impossible to change.
"I don't think the Sahtu people fully understand that they would be responsible for killing the project if they continue to allow their negotiator to hold hard and fast to that," he says.
Tourangeau says he knows, and he's not concerned.
Meanwhile the land corporations in Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake have deferred their ratification vote until next month. |
