May 2, 2005
Below are comments from two of Inuvik’s businessmen on Imperial Oil’s announcement last week.
Inuvik, NT May 2, 2005 – Al Davis of Davis Construction Ltd. in Inuvik says:
“Well, the Imperial Oil announcement pretty much put my plans on hold. It’s annoying. I’ve been through two of these boom and bust cycles here and it makes a guy wonder if there’s enough economic potential to stay. Some of my work would go ahead anyway. But if nothing goes ahead, then I’ll be pretty disappointed.”
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Inuvik, NT May 2, 2005 – Dean Smith, manager of Mackenzie Valley Construction Ltd. in Inuvik says:
“The announcement has had no impact at all on our plans. Until a final decision has been made on whether the pipeline is going ahead or not, we will continue as we have been. Winter work ended as of Saturday, as scheduled. All our summer work is with municipal and territorial capital projects and we’ll be bidding on that as it comes up.”
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Open Letter to Hon. Ethel Blondin-Andrew, MP Western Arctic
May 2, 2005
Ethel
Where are you?
The decision by Imperial Oil and the other Mackenzie Producers Group Members to suspend capital spending and other work on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project is alarming. We have witnessed the exodus of the oil & gas industry from the north in the past and the devastating social impacts created by their departure. How many times must we go down this road. You know better!
The message being sent to industry and the investment community is that business can’t be done in the north and in Canada.
The federal government has repeatedly fumbled the ball in providing regulatory and or political certainty for this project. The Supreme Court of Canada has clearly stated that a “Veto” is not possible, yet the federal government continues to chose not to intervene is this “access and benefits” nonsense taking place up here? Why is the federal government more concerned
about a comprehensive “process” than helping to provide a clear road map for success? How come there is no leadership coming from Ottawa for this project which is clearly in the national interest?
This project needs federal champions that are accountable to PMO/PCO. Why is this project bouncing around from Scott’s, Efford’s to McClellan’s office? It’s embarrassing. You need someone with a clear mandate to kick some ass, or this project will never see the light of day, and that would be the epitome of neglect and irresponsibility on the part of government.
The MGP is a $7 billion dollar project in your riding, of which approximately $3.5 billion will be spent directly on Mackenzie Delta production infrastructure. Inuvik is the most impacted community and we do not hear or see a peep out of you. How many other MP’s can boast that kind of growth potential in their constituency?
Make no mistake, industry has pulled out of the north in the past under the exact same circumstances and without warning, and will do it again. Remember the Beaufort Sea exploration days. Gulf Canada, Imperial Oil and Dome Petroleum were all GONE IN DAYS which created an economic vacuum that lasted years. It was taxpayers money then, it’s their own today. How long do you think they’ll stay on their own dime this time?
The federal government must act NOW.
I’m dismayed by your lack of presence to this matter.
Paul Komaromi
Inuvik, NT
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Ottawa bids to break pipeline impasse
May 4, 2005
Grant Robertson
Calgary Herald and Canadian Press
The federal government will meet with representatives of the Northwest Territories and aboriginal groups starting today in a bid to quell rising frustrations over the $7-billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline.
Officials from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) plan to meet in Edmonton with northern groups, then in Calgary later this week with the five companies involved in building the massive project.
A government spokesman said officials are looking to kickstart stalled pipeline talks with discussions that are slated to take place over the “upcoming days and weeks.”
The hastily arranged meetings come after tensions hit a boiling point last week when the companies, represented by Imperial Oil Ltd., said they were halting preparatory work on the project due to regulatory delays and demands from aboriginal groups.
Political uncertainty in Ottawa has made it difficult for federal ministers to leave Parliament Hill in case the government faces a non-confidence vote from the opposition Tories. As a result, the MPs in charge of the file won’t be traveling to Alberta.
In their place, INAC Deputy Minister Michael Horgan has been appointed lead the negotiations in a bid to get the project back on track.
Government officials said there is no timeframe for the meetings, indicating that talks may go as long as necessary.
“He’s been tasked with intensifying our efforts,” Dan Brien, spokesman for INAC, said of Horgan’s role. “We want to see this project move ahead in a timely fashion while exercising due diligence on the environmental assessment and regulatory review.”
The move came after Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan acknowledged this week there’s been “slippage” in the regulatory procedures governing Mackenzie pipeline.
The 1,350-kilometre pipeline will ship badly needed natural gas reserves in the North to markets in the south.
Imperial said the companies are halting early work on the proposed project until a complicated regulatory process involving a series of federal and territorial jurisdictions is simplified. Demands from aboriginal groups, who want money from the companies to build, schools, roads and hospitals, have also stalled the project.
The companies are willing to pay for access to the land that the pipeline will traverse, but have said the $40 million annually that four aboriginal groups are reportedly seeking is excessive. Such benefits and access agreements should only be paid “at fair market rates and terms,” an Imperial spokesman said.
Energy Minister John Efford also expressed concerns about the shelved project this week, saying agreements need to be put in place “as quickly as possible.”
The federal government was warned that would happen, said Nellie Cournoyea, chairwoman of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp., which oversees the Inuvialuit land claim in the northwestern corner of the Northwest Territories.
“We have been warning the government of Canada that if they didn’t take care of some of the social impact issues, they would find their way into the impact and benefits agreements (with the companies),” she said Tuesday.
Cournoyea’s group has been one of the strongest backers of the pipeline.
Fred Carmichael, head of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, which owns a one-third share in the project, said northern aboriginal communities have felt the effect of federal policies since the 1950s.
“There’s been social impacts from 1954 when they started the (Distant Early Warning) line until today,” said Carmichael.
“Those social impacts haven’t been dealt with. Now, all of a sudden, we expect someone who wants to spend $7 billion in the area to take care of those impacts.”
Over the years, pipelines have been laid, roads built and communities moved without the means to mitigate the social consequences, Carmichael said.
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Northern Aboriginal Leaders comment on the Pipeline Situation
Canadian Press
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
(CP) – The current impasse over the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline could have been avoided if Ottawa had paid attention to what the last 50 years of government policy and development were doing to northern communities, aboriginal leaders say.
Last week, Imperial Oil suspended much of the work that had been scheduled for this summer on the $7-billion project. Aboriginal groups were expecting the pipeline to make up for decades of poverty and social problems its proponents did nothing to cause, the company said.
The federal government was warned that would happen, said Nellie Cournoyea, chairwoman of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp., which oversees the Inuvialuit land claim in the northwestern corner of the Northwest Territories.
“We have been warning the government of Canada that if they didn’t take care of some of the social impact issues, they would find their way into the impact and benefits agreements (with the companies),” she said Tuesday.
Cournoyea’s group has been one of the strongest backers of the pipeline.
Fred Carmichael, head of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, which owns a one-third share in the project, said northern aboriginal communities have felt the effect of federal policies since the 1950s.
“There’s been social impacts from 1954 when they started the (Distant Early Warning) line until today,” said Carmichael.
“Those social impacts haven’t been dealt with. Now, all of a sudden, we expect someone who wants to spend $7 billion in the area to take care of those impacts.”
Over the years, pipelines have been laid, roads built and communities moved without the means to mitigate the social consequences, Carmichael said.
Federal officials are expected in Yellowknife this week to come up with some options to resolve the difficulties. N.W.T. Premier Joe Handley is scheduled to take those options to Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan in Ottawa next week.
Money for communities has to be part of the solution, said Cournoyea. If it isn’t forthcoming from government, aboriginal leaders will continue to play hardball with energy companies, she suggested.
“Where else are they going to go? They’re trying to use access and benefits agreements to address legitimate issues they have.
“The government have to come forward and say, ‘This is the money we’re going to put into communities,’ and they have to do it now.”
Imperial’s move doesn’t seem to have shaken the bargaining position of northern aboriginals.
“I don’t think we’re asking for too much,” said Keyna Norwegian, head of the Dehgah Alliance, which represents five communities in the southern N.W.T. that would be directly impacted by the pipeline.
“If they think it’s too much for them, they should reconsider the whole project.”
Norwegian said the different aboriginal groups are working on a unified proposal to charge the pipeline consortium a one to two per cent fee on its annual gross income.
It’s the pipeliners, not the aboriginals, who are being unreasonable, she said.
“They meet with us because they have to. They’re not really listening to what we’re saying.”
Cournoyea acknowledged some aboriginal groups are using the pipeline as bargaining leverage in land claim or other negotiations.
“There’s many players in this game and so many agendas. It’s confusing a commercial deal.”
But if the bulk of the blame lies anywhere, she said, look to Ottawa.
“I think the government has dropped the biggest ball.”
© The Canadian Press 2005
