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Prentice: Best interests will rule New Canadian minister says unanimous support not needed for Mackenzie natural gas pipeline, will not let one group sink project; Deh Cho leader says “bulldozer” approach wrong Gary Park For Petroleum News
The outspoken Deh Cho First Nations were the apparent target of some equally blunt talk from Canada’s newly appointed Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice.
The federal government will not let one group sink the Mackenzie Gas Project, he told a public meeting in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories.
“We’re hoping the aboriginal communities of the North will be unanimous in supporting the project,” Prentice said in his first speech on the Mackenzie project. “We hope that unanimity is possible, but at the end of the day we’ll be searching for a route forward that is supported by a majority of the people of the North.”’
“We do not intend to allow the legitimate aspirations and prosperity of the majority of aboriginal and non-aboriginal stakeholders to be frustrated by inaction.
“I have no intention to either support or fund procedures that are dysfunctional, non-constructive, or systemically in opposition to the interest of Canada or the interest of the majority of northerners.”
Deh Cho not named Prentice did not make any specific reference to the Deh Cho, which has commenced, stalled and restarted legal actions over the past 18 months, but the community whose land claim covers 40 percent of the Mackenzie pipeline right of way, remains the last hold out among first nations regions.
The minister’s suggestion that the federal government might withhold funding from opponents of the project has been interpreted as referring to the C$500 million fund the previous federal government has promised to ease the social and economic impact of the pipeline across the Northwest Territories. To date, the Conservative administration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not said whether it will deliver on that commitment.
“In concept, we are supportive of the social-economic idea that resulted from discussions between Imperial Oil and the previous government,” Prentice said.
Norwegian says backing hinges on federal agreement Deh Cho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian was unmoved by Prentice’s hard-line.
He said it was wrong for the government to “just bulldoze ahead” in the hope that once major corporations get their way “things will be fine and dandy afterward.”
Norwegian has insisted that Deh Cho backing for the pipeline hinges on a land and self-government agreement with the federal government, including the right to collect taxes from the pipeline.
He told Prentice in Calgary earlier in April that unless there is clear progress in that direction, there will be no backing from the Deh Cho. Prentice said in Norman Wells that he is willing to negotiate respectfully with First Nations people, but “in circumstances where agreement is not possible and the public interest of Canada is being frustrated, we will move forward.”
“I wish to be clear that there is a new government in Ottawa and that there is now new political leadership and things have changed in terms of development in the North and the Mackenzie Valley project in particular,” he said.
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