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Back the Mac or pay price Harper says NWT’s failure to clear way for gas line could jeopardize hopes By Gary Park For Petroleum News
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has put the Northwest Territories’ collective feet to the fire, linking support for the Mackenzie Gas Project to the region’s hopes for a greater chunk of resource royalties.
He said the NWT’s cherished dream of getting direct access to royalty revenue rather than handouts from the federal government “won’t happen unless you make sure that projects like the Mackenzie Valley pipeline come to fruition.”
Speaking to business and political leaders in the NWT Legislature Aug. 19, Harper said approval of the pipeline would be a step closer toward agreement on a revenue-sharing pact.
But opposition to the project could undermine the chances of federal money being transferred to territorial and aboriginal governments, he said.
He said the proposed gas pipeline still faces many obstacles, including competition from a pipeline out of Alaska’s North Slope to the Lower 48, fast-rising construction costs and opponents who Harper said would risk a “historical opportunity” to protect their own “narrow interest.”
He did not directly mention the Deh Cho First Nations leadership which has mounted the toughest campaign against the Mackenzie project in an attempt to advance their land-claims and self-government negotiations. Deh Cho: Canadian government doesn’t own land Deh Cho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian said he was not troubled by Harper’s blunt message, arguing the Canadian government “does not own a grain of dirt in the Deh Cho territory. … If Canada thinks they’re going to go ahead and push the pipeline through Deh Cho territory, I think they’re in for a big shock.”
However, Norwegian disclosed that meetings are currently taking place to discuss Ottawa’s latest land claim proposal.
Northwest Territories Premier Joe Handley agreed with Harper’s comments on the need for northerners to give unified backing to the pipeline.
He said that if projects on the scale of the pipeline stumble there will not be any resource revenue to share.
Harper said a long approval process is slowing resource development in the north, noting that it takes three years to get the required permits for a mine in Nunavut compared to nine months in Quebec.
“We need to ask why, 30 years after it was first proposed, we’re still wondering when, or if, the Mackenzie pipeline will be approved,” Harper said.
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