Gas pipeline race update: Foothills, Kaska Nation strike deal

Gary Park

Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd. has reached a “cooperation agreement” with Yukon and northern British Columbia first nations — a key step towards ensuring economic benefits for aboriginal communities if a gas pipeline is built along the Alaska Highway.

The agreement is the first of three phases leading to a formal economic benefits pact covering Native jobs, benefits, business opportunities and ownership structure.

The negotiations are expected to be completed by March 31, 2002, a federal government deadline for the settlement of six outstanding land claims, self-government and trans-boundary agreements with the Kaska Nation.

Peter Stone, chief executive officer of the Kaskas’ Kayeh Nan Petroleum, described the cooperation deal as a “major step” towards achieving economic benefits for aboriginals.

He said it opens a door for the Kaska to pursue business opportunities, such as the provision of goods and services, and to discuss how they could be involved in a pipeline.

Stone said there is growing optimism in the Kaska Nation that the unresolved land claims and governance issues can be sorted out by the deadline.

Foothills executive vice-president John Ellwood said the Calgary-based company — a joint venture of TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. and Westcoast Energy Inc. (which is being taken over by Duke Energy Corp.) — is hoping to enter other, but not necessarily identical, agreements with all first nations along the pipeline right of way.

The Kaska Nation includes five of 24 first nations groups in the Yukon and British Columbia with whom Foothills is discussing the pipeline.

Just a month ago, the Mackenzie Delta Producers Group and the Mackenzie Valley Aboriginal Pipeline Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding, setting the stage for one-third aboriginal ownership of a pipeline through the Northwest Territories, as well as other economic benefits.

That deal was hailed by Northwest Territories Energy Minister Joe Handley as a crucial step in helping an all-Canadian pipeline from the Arctic get the jump on a highway line.

“It means everybody is serious in looking at the pipeline,” he said. “Now the producers can get seriously on to a feasibility study.”