Imperial Oil moves forward with public hearings on Mackenzie pipeline project
macleans.ca
BOB WEBER
(CP) - After months of delay and uncertainty, Imperial Oil says its $7-billion Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project is ready to move to public hearings.
"The proponents of the Mackenzie gas project are now willing to proceed to the public hearings phase," Sandy Martin, Imperial's manager of regulatory affairs, wrote to the National Energy Board on Wednesday. Although that doesn't necessarily mean pipeline construction will go ahead, the decision marks the project's first real step forward since Imperial cancelled preparatory work last spring.
[snip]
The Deh Cho First Nation, however, is not on board.
[snip]
====
Canada Arctic pipeline takes big step forward
Wed Nov 23, 2005 4:21 PM ET
today.reuters.com
Excerpt:
Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO.TO: Quote, Profile, Research), lead partner in the Mackenzie Gas Project, told the National Energy Board it has made enough progress solving sticky land access and benefits issues with aboriginal communities that it can start planning for what are expected to be epic hearings throughout Canada's far north.
But it cautioned the access and benefits deals -- sought since the companies suspended physical work on the pipeline last April over mounting costs -- must be ratified next month.
Imperial also pointed out it has yet to agree on the price of access to the lands of the sole holdout aboriginal group in the Northwest Territories, the Deh Cho First Nation. |
