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Conflict allegations dismissed against Bernier Independent investigator finds government official was in no ‘real or potential’ conflict over mineral claims staked by his wife Gary Park Petroleum News Calgary Correspondent
Allegations of guilt-by-association leveled against a Canadian government official involved in the Mackenzie Gas Project have been dismissed by an independent investigator.
The issue was raised last summer when the Deh Cho First Nations, whose land covers 40 percent of the proposed 800-mile Mackenzie Valley pipeline route, said the wife of a federal environmental official had staked mineral claims along the proposed pipeline right of way.
Quebec attorney Vincent O’Donnell, who was appointed last October to probe the claims, reported to the federal government’s Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency that agency Vice President Paul Bernier was “not in a real or potential conflict of interest in relation to the mineral claims,” registered in the name of his wife Maureen.
“Neither the (agency) nor Paul Bernier had any influence on the route of the proposed pipeline,” O’Donnell said.
He concluded that Maureen Bernier had been acting for her sister when she staked 12 mineral claims in 1998 between Fort Simpson and Jean Marie River.
O’Donnell said he had no reason to believe that Paul Bernier had deliberately excluded the Deh Cho from the regulatory process. Claims in area ranked low to moderate for mineral deposits There was no immediate response from the Deh Cho, although Grand Chief Herb Norwegian had earlier said Maureen Bernier has also spent C$100,000 to keep the claims current on land he said has “no diamonds, no gold, not much of anything,” adding the claims were registered several years before the pipeline alignment became public.
The claims are in an area ranked low to moderate in all mineral deposits, but the Deh Cho argued that under the Territorial Lands Act it is illegal for a federal employee to have a direct or indirect interest in land in the Northwest Territories.
Because Paul Bernier was personally involved in negotiating the pipeline project cooperation plan to streamline the approval process, the Deh Cho asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate because they believed Bernier had advance knowledge of the likely pipeline route.
The environmental agency, describing the allegations as “very serious,” ordered its probe, hiring O’Donnell for the job.
Paul Bernier was suspended on full pay for the course of the investigation and returns to work on the week of April 12 as vice president of program delivery, although he will not be assigned to the Mackenzie Gas Project.
The Deh Cho, insisting they have not surrendered any rights to their traditional lands, have refused to join other aboriginal communities in supporting a pipeline through their territory while they seek to negotiate a land claim and regional self-government.
They have already served notice on the Canadian government that unless a “flawed” regulatory process is halted and changed they will exercise their “legal right to veto the project.”
Norwegian said the Deh Cho are ready to move forward as long as the 13 Dene and Metis communities comprising the First Nations get “meaningful involvement in the review.”
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