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January 2006

Vol. 12, No. 3 Week of January 15, 2006

Dene Tha’ lose one bid to delay Mackenzie gasline hearings

One obstacle to the upcoming Mackenzie Gas Project hearings has been partly removed. According to a Jan. 9 CBC News report the Joint Review Panel has refused a request from the Dene Tha’ First Nation to delay hearings until a case filed by the tribe against the C$7.5 billion project with the Federal Court of Canada has been decided. The Dene Tha’, which has land claims pending in northern Alberta and the southern Northwest Territories, claims it has been shut out of the pipeline and wants the regulatory review halted until it gains a role in the process.

The court has set a two-day hearing for Feb. 20 and 21 to deal with the preliminary issues, the Dene Tha’ said in a news release Dec. 9. CBC said Jan. 9 that the tribe’s application for judicial review of the Mackenzie hearings won’t be heard until June.

The head of the panel, Robert Hornal, was quoted by CBC as saying Jan. 6 that many of the Dene Tha’s issues are outside the scope of the panel’s work and that delaying the Mackenzie hearings won’t help anyone.

About 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the proposed Mackenzie pipeline, which would eventually carry 1.9 billion cubic feet of Arctic natural gas per day to Canadian and Lower 48 markets, crosses Dene Tha’ land in northern Alberta.

The National Energy Board has set Jan. 25 — two days after Canada’s federal election campaign — to start its proceeding in Inuvik on the Mackenzie Delta. The Joint Review Panel will begin hearings probing environmental and socio-economic issues on Feb. 14 in Inuvik.

Before 2006 is over it should be clear whether the Mackenzie Gas Project is on track for completion in 2011 or whether Canada’s northern petroleum riches will be shouldered aside by the much larger Alaska Highway gasline.

Hearings still in jeopardy

But the hearing schedule could still be thrown off track by other unresolved aboriginal issues.

Talks with the Deh Cho First Nations could fall apart. The Deh Cho, whose land covers about 40 percent of the pipeline route, have been a persistent wild card by refusing to join other northern Native regions in settling benefits and access agreements.

Complicating matters, the K’asho, Gotine and Tulita/Deline communities have requested additional time to conclude their agreements.

—Kay Cashman






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