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Canada names high-powered negotiator for Mackenzie Delta gasline project
Gary Park PNA Canadian Correspondent
The Canadian government has gone to the top shelf to appoint a negotiator to deal with Northwest Territories aboriginals hoping to gain an ownership stake in the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline.
Roland Priddle, an economist and geologist, who was chairman of Canada’s National Energy Board from 1986 to 1997 and an architect of energy free trade between Canada and the United States, has been assigned to speed up negotiations with the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.
Aboriginals approve The Aboriginal Pipeline Group, which is seeking a one-third equity stake in the first pipeline from Canada’s Arctic to southern markets, has welcomed the appointment which comes after it warned that prolonged delays in getting decisions from the Canadian government were putting the development of Mackenzie Delta gas at risk.
Wilf Blonde, a negotiator with the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, said the hope now is that aboriginal leaders can get a decision before the end of 2002 on their request for a C$70 million federal loan guarantee to cover the group’s share of the preliminary design work for a pipeline.
Appointment signals government serious He said the naming of Priddle is a sign that the government is “now serious about getting down to business,” after lagging behind.
A business plan was submitted to Robert Nault, the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, earlier this year and is still awaiting a response.
Aboriginal Pipeline Group chair Nellie Cournoyea last month appealed directly to Prime Minister Jean Chretien to intervene, telling him that the project was at a critical crossroads.
Chretien, in an Oct. 22 reply, said his government supported the filing of an application for a Mackenzie Valley pipeline to regulatory and environmental assessment authorities “as soon as possible.”
He said a pipeline and the related exploration and development of Canada’s northern gas reserves “present an opportunity to bring about significant economic benefits to the North.”
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