Deh Cho threatens to block Mackenzie gas line if not on environmental review panel

Petroleum News

The Deh Cho First Nations, whose land covers 40 percent of the proposed 800-mile Mackenzie Valley pipeline route, says it will block the natural gas pipeline unless it gets a seat on an environmental joint review panel. (See related story on page 1.)

According to a June 11 press release by the Deh Cho, the pipeline review agencies broke an “agreement-in-principle” reached on May 28 to include the Deh Cho “as a full party” in the joint review panel that will conduct an environmental assessment of the proposed gas line.

A news release from the May meeting said, “Both sides have agreed to form a working group that will examine ways to involve the participation of the (Deh Cho) in the joint review panel.” A recent news story in the Calgary Sun reported that Mackenzie Valley board director Vern Christensen said Norwegian misunderstood the intent of the working group.

“(The agreement) was an undertaking to examine ways in which the Deh Cho could participate in the process,” he said. “I think the (Deh Cho) took it as a commitment when there just wasn't enough knowledge or analysis to go there.”

At a follow-up meeting held June 11 in Yellowknife, “representatives of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board and the National Energy Board refused to even discuss including the Deh Cho First Nations as a party to the Joint Review Panel,” the Deh Cho said in the release.

“This is a classic case of negotiating in bad faith. We had a deal with the chairs of all the review boards to appoint a technical working group to figure out how to include the Deh Cho as a full party to the environmental assessment. Our members of the technical working group went to the June 11 meeting expecting to draft an agreement based on the May 28 understanding,” Grand Chief Herb Norwegian was quoted in the release.

“If the review boards sign an agreement that excludes the Deh Cho, we will be going to court. Unless the Deh Cho becomes full partner in the environmental assessment, the pipeline might as well stop at the Sahtu border,” added Chief Keyna Norwegian of Liidlii Kue First Nation in Fort Simpson.

The release said court action “may include an assertion of aboriginal title and rights, as well as a charge that the review boards are failing to consider cumulative effects of the future gas fields needed to feed the pipeline over its 25-year plus lifespan.”

Editor’s note: The Deh Cho have refused to join other Northwest Territories aboriginal communities in the Aboriginal Pipeline Group until their land claim is settled.