[IPSM] Arctic pipeliners fear aboriginal legal move may create new regulatory layer

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Arctic pipeliners fear aboriginal legal move may create new regulatory layer

Bob Weber
Canadian Press (National Post)
http://www.canada.com/news/business/story.html?id=6666f97c-d7a0-4a47-abfb-624576d39fb3

February 9, 2005

(CP) - Proponents of a $7-billion Arctic natural gas pipeline are worried
legal manoeuvres by a northern aboriginal group could add a new layer of
regulation and delay an already halting process.

The Deh Cho First Nation, which claims land on 40 per cent of the
pipeline's route, has reactivated a lawsuit calling for any pipeline
approvals to be declared invalid, said Grand Chief Herb Norwegian. Talks
on an out-of-court settlement have stalled and a big part of any deal
would be a new permitting agency giving his group final control over
development, he said.

"I've instructed our lawyers to continue our litigation," said Norwegian.
"We may have hit bottom here."

Last fall, the Deh Cho First Nation, made up of about 4,500 Dene in the
southwest corner of the Northwest Territories, filed two lawsuits in
Federal Court. The Deh Cho want the court to block the pipeline review and
declare any decision reached by the review panel invalid until the First
Nation is included in the process.

A settlement seemed near as recently as mid-January, but Norwegian said
Ottawa is now balking, largely over Deh Cho demands for their own
regulatory body.

The Deh Cho no longer want to be governed by the Mackenzie Valley Land and
Water Board, Norwegian said. That board grants all pipeline permits with
the exception of the extreme north and has authority over regional bodies.

Deh Cho chiefs want final say over any development on what they consider
their traditional lands. The group is currently also negotiating a land
claim.

"It's not so that we would be able to stop development, it's so we would
have some say over it," Norwegian said.

But that would change the regulatory rules in the middle of the game, said
Hart Searle, spokesman for the pipeline proponents.

A plan for the various northern regulators to co-operate has already been
worked out and energy companies have made plans based on that, said
Searle.

"This co-operation plan as laid out was a central part of our planning. We
made a lot of fundamental decisions based on that," he said.

"It's critical that all the (regulatory) agencies remain accountable to it."

Both a new regulatory player and further legal action carry the threat of
further delays to the project.

"Delays add to cost," said Searle.

"The economics of our project are not robust. Anything that factors into
that diminishes the attractiveness of the economics."

Norwegian said he will seek a meeting with Indian Affairs Minister Andy
Scott to try to clear the roadblock.

But it's the second piece of bad news for the pipeline project in as many
weeks.

Last week, the pipeline proponents were told by regulators that their
environmental impact statements contained so many information gaps that no
hearings on the project can be scheduled until those holes are plugged.
© The Canadian Press 2005

--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.