Mackenzie gas talks falter

Deh Cho recall negotiators, threaten resumption of lawsuits to halt environmental review

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary Correspondent

Canada’s National Energy Board is ready to start public hearings on the Mackenzie Gas Project next April.

The question facing all the players is how battered and bruised the plans might be by then.

Just when it seemed one of the key sticking points — full participation by the Deh Cho First Nations — was headed for a resolution, hopes have come unglued.

It took less than a month for a growing mood of optimism that the Deh Cho and Canadian government could reach an out-of-court settlement to fade as the recalcitrant Northwest Territories aboriginal community was again threatening to revive a potentially destructive legal action.

On Nov. 5, Deh Cho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian and federal negotiators started probing ways to avoid two lawsuits by the Deh Cho challenging the environmental review process for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

At the time, Norwegian said a political deal would be in “everybody’s interests. We’re just trying to get everything back on track.”

Deh Cho recall negotiators

He said the government has merely “blown the dust” off strategies that were scrapped in August, claiming the Deh Cho had bent “quite a bit” just by joining the negotiations and were willing to compromise on strategy, but not on principle.

Unless the government displayed the same flexibility, he suggested that the legal cases to block the environmental review would likely be restarted.

Norwegian offered Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Andy Scott one last opportunity to pursue a non-mediated political settlement.

A spokeswoman with Scott’s department told Petroleum News Nov. 29 that a framework agreement for averting court action “is still in place” and the government is “hoping the negotiations will continue.”

Otherwise the terms of the agreement prevent any government officials from commenting on the negotiations or the Deh Cho demands.

However, Norwegian has disclosed that a greater role for the Deh Cho in the environmental review is on the table, including two Deh Cho appointed representatives on the seven-member review panel.

He has also pressed for action on land claims and self-government deals for a territory made up of 13 separate aboriginal communities and covering the southern 40 percent of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline route.

Norwegian said the Deh Cho also want legislation giving them control over pipeline permitting and licensing.

Court requires consultations

In a unanimous decision, the court said governments have a duty to consult with aboriginal groups over proposed developments, although they are not obliged to receive Native consent before approving land use.

It said Canadian authorities must “consult and accommodate” when industrial projects affect aboriginal populations, but that did not mean aboriginal groups had a veto over what could be done with the land.

One ruling related to the forestry giant Weyerhauser and its right to log the Queen Charlotte Islands, which are the subject of a Haida land claim. The second involved the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and a mining project proposed for northern British Columbia by Redfern Resources.

In its decision, the Supreme Court rejected the British Columbia government’s argument that any duty to consult or accommodate rests exclusively with the Canadian government.

Industrial groups have generally welcomed the rulings, with Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, saying the court has provided greater certainty for oil and natural gas operators.

Jerry Lampert, president of the Business Council of British Columbia, described the verdicts as a positive contribution to the investment climate by “establishing a sound framework for relationships among government, First Nations and private interests.”