Chretien backs Knowles on overland pipeline route

Canadian prime minister sets off a furor in Northwest Territories; told he won’t be the final decision-maker; urged to give priority to Mackenzie Delta gas

Gary Park

PNA Canadian Correspondent

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, by unexpectedly showing his hand on the routing of an Arctic natural gas pipeline, has heightened a pitched battle between the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

Making a campaign stop in Whitehorse during Canada’s November election campaign — which saw Chretien’s Liberal Party capture a third straight majority government, the first in 55 years — he joined Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles in giving the Alaska Highway route a thumbs-up.

Chretien, referring to a 1970s U.S.-Canada treaty endorsing the highway system, said the industry has “virtually no choice but to take gas from Alaska through the Yukon and to market.”

He said the treaty was negotiated a “long time ago,” but its terms made the choice clear.

The remarks triggered dismay, confusion and anger in the NWT, which has been pressing the Canadian government to support a pipeline along the Mackenzie River Valley — either linked to Prudhoe Bay or as a stand-alone Canadian system.

NWT Resources Minister Joe Handley said it “doesn’t sound like (Chretien) has thought through how he’s protecting Canadian interests.”

In any event, Handley declared, a pipeline route “won’t be decided by the Canadian prime minister. The decision on how Alaska gas will get to market is an Alaska decision.”

He said it would “make a lot more sense economically and environmentally to have one pipeline that serves both basins (Prudhoe Bay and the Mackenzie Delta).”

But, in the meantime, Chretien should concentrate on Canadian gas and give his backing to a Mackenzie route, Handley argued.

Nellie Cournoyea, former NWT premier and chief executive officer of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, which is working with aboriginal groups and gas producers on a pipeline proposal, agreed that Chretien should be defending the use of Canadian gas by Canadians.

She said the NWT’s Arctic Pipeline Group is “trying to put together a proposal that takes in employment opportunity, business opportunities, training and an equity share in a pipeline. We need (Chretien) to say that he supports this.”

Ethel Blondin-Andrew, the NWT’s sole Member of Parliament and a junior minister in Chretien’s cabinet, was left to handle the fallout.

She said Chretien told her his comments did not preclude the building of a Mackenzie Valley pipeline and that Canadian gas is a priority for him.

“I’m pushing for development through my territory,” she said. “Governments cannot preempt the decision-making process. That can only start when producers make formal applications — something that has not happened yet.

“The best routing will be made with input from everyone, including producers, customers, northerners and governments,” said Blondin-Andrew.

Yukon Premier Pat Duncan, in welcoming the announcements by Chretien and Knowles, said the statements establish the validity of the US-Canada treaty.

But Duncan said that although she remains adamantly opposed to any pipeline under the Beaufort Sea or across the northern Yukon, she has always insisted there should be two pipelines tapping Prudhoe Bay and Mackenzie Delta gas.

Louise Hardy, who lost her seat as the Yukon’s Member of Parliament by only 70 votes to Larry Bagnell in the Nov. 27 election, said Yukoners deserved better than Chretien’s “brand of private pit-stop politics” that yielded his Whitehorse remarks.

“He’s chosen to make private campaign pledges to certain Yukoners out of earshot of the majority of voters,” she said. “Yukoners must get jobs, business, gas and revenues. And we must drive a hard bargain to ensure our people and territory benefit in the long-term rather than suffer the downside of what could be a boom-and-bust roller-coaster.”

Yukon Chamber of Commerce president Lynn Ogden said the election of Bagnell improves the chances of reviving the Yukon’s depressed economy through oil and gas initiatives.

He said the fact that the Yukon, NWT and Nunavut have all elected Liberal Members of Parliament opens the way to a joint economic development strategy.

Bagnell said his one campaign promise was to develop an economic agenda based on a natural gas pipeline, aboriginal land claims and devolution of powers from the federal government to the Yukon.