Northwest Territories leader makes case for federal pipeline aid

Gary Park

Nellie Cournoyea, one of the Arctic’s most formidable and persuasive lobbyists, is turning up the heat on the Canadian government to provide financial support for a Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline.

The chair of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, which is negotiating on behalf of most aboriginals along a pipeline route with the Mackenzie Delta Producers Group, said the Aboriginal Pipeline Group needs up to C$50 million to work on the project definition stage and C$1 billion to secure aboriginal ownership in a pipeline.

As leverage, she is using history — in particular the billions of dollars the government poured into exploration and development of Newfoundland’s offshore oil.

The government, in fact, still holds 8.5 percent of the Hibernia field, which produces about 135,000 barrels per day and has a long-term goal of raising that to 200,000 barrels per day.

“Perhaps the federal government could use the proceeds from the sale of its interests in the heavily subsidized Hibernia oilfield, now that it is doing well,” Cournoyea, a former Northwest Territories premier, told a Calgary conference the week of Nov. 5.

Goal is assistance in financing

“Instead, we’re asking for assistance in financing our part of the partnership,” she said, referring to an agreement that would give the group a one-third stake in the C$3 billion pipeline, provided it can negotiate shipments of up to 500 million cubic feet per day.

“We’d like to see (government) assistance in helping us raise the one-third needed for our share of the pipeline,” she said. “It could be, in part, a loan guarantee.”

But the obstacles to landing a deal are already substantial. In October, federal Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault said the government has no plans to provide aboriginals in the Northwest Territories with loan guarantees.

At the same conference, Ken Vollman, chairman of Canada’s National Energy Board, said the federal regulator will be positioned to handle an Arctic pipeline application by the end of this year. He said the objective would be to complete all regulatory and environmental assessment within 30 months.

Although there has been no indication when an application might be filed, Vollman said one is likely by early 2002.

Bill Gwozd, manager of gas services at Calgary-based Ziff Energy Group, said there is now “a lot of push” in the Delta to get a Mackenzie Valley pipeline built before a pipeline out of the North Slope.

“The industry likes smaller steps,” he said. “Smaller in this particular case is better.”