[IPSM] Nations celebrate pipeline ruling

[Macdonald Stainsby]

       Aboriginals celebrate pipeline ruling


       http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/03/18/965526-cp.html

       YELLOWKNIFE (CP) - A northern aboriginal group fighting the 
environmental review process for the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline 
is celebrating a court victory that could expose how politics influenced 
the project's regulatory panel.

       In a decision released this week, Federal Court ruled Ottawa must 
release a sweeping array of briefing notes, minutes, draft plans, 
correspondence and other documents the federal government relied on to 
design the joint review panel, which will consider the environmental 
impacts of the $7-billion pipeline.

       "We're just clicking our heels, man," said Deh Cho Grand Chief 
Herb Norwegian. "We'll find what it is the federal government is thinking."

       The ruling was part of a lawsuit by the Deh Cho First Nations, a 
group of about 4,000 Dene in the southwestern part of the Northwest 
Territories. The Deh Cho, who are also negotiating a land claim with 
Ottawa, say they haven't been given sufficient input into the panel even 
though 40 per cent of the pipeline's possible route is on their land.

       The lawsuit seeks to have any decision reached by panel declared 
invalid.

       The Deh Cho have been in negotiations for months for an 
out-of-court settlement to the lawsuit, which has the potential to 
seriously delay a project widely seen as the key to economic development 
in the western Arctic.

       "Anything to leverage our negotiations is just great," said 
Norwegian.

       Deh Cho lawyer Chris Reid said the Deh Cho are the only 
aboriginal group in the N.W.T. that hasn't agreed to invest money and 
support the project and the only group that feels shut out of the review.

       "Our suspicion has been all along that the Deh Cho was excluded 
because they're the one group that hasn't invested in the pipeline," he 
said. "All the other groups that have been included have been actively 
promoting the pipeline."

       Hearings on the pipeline have been delayed until at least the 
late summer by concerns over the environmental impact assessment 
submitted by the proponents.