[IPSM] Northern hamlet, like other Mackenzie delta communities, split on pipeline

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Northern hamlet, like other Mackenzie delta communities, split on pipeline
By BOB WEBER
			

TSIIGEHTCHIC, N.W.T. (CP) - Shrone Vanloon, 17, perches on top of his 
snow machine in a tiny aboriginal community holding hearings into a 
proposed $7-billion natural gas project and says building a pipeline 
down the Mackenzie Valley spells opportunity.

"I think it's pretty good," he says, before adding he's already signed 
up for training courses that could lead to a career.

But down the street, Abe Bonnet Plume, 27, has drawn different conclusions.

"I'm against it," he says. "It's good without (the pipeline). It's so 
peaceful without it.

"It's supposed to be lots of work, but that doesn't matter to me. It's 
hurting Mother Earth."

The two young men typify the divisions in communities up and down the 
Mackenzie Valley that would be most affected by the project, which would 
almost certainly open the entire region to energy and other industrial 
development.

Northerners are caught between the future promise of jobs and prosperity 
and their concerns over environment and social impacts - especially in 
light of their experience during the last boom of the 1970s when 
environmental and aboriginal concerns were felt to be given short shrift.

Tsiigehtchic is a hamlet of about 200 perched on bluffs overlooking the 
confluence of the Mackenzie and the Arctic Red rivers. The occasional 
freshly skinned bear pelt hangs on a balcony, and concern over the 
proposed pipeline is never far from people's thoughts.

"It's talked about every day," says town maintenance worker Abe Ross, 
43, who favours the development. "It's a constant thing at the coffee 
table."

Fred Andre, a newly elected member of the band council, expresses 
serious doubts - despite promises to his chief that he'd keep a low 
profile on the issue.

"I think there's too many unanswered questions," he says.

How vulnerable will the line be to terrorist attack? he asks. How will 
climate change affect the permafrost the pipeline would rely on for support.

Andre says he helped conduct a survey last summer on how the Gwich'In 
people feel about the pipeline.

"A large majority of people felt that we weren't ready for it."

But Ross says concerns about the pipeline's social impacts are overblown.

"The social impacts are already here," he says. "The drugs, the booze 
and all that stuff is already here.

"I think (the pipeline) will be a benefit to all the people. They just 
need to be educated a little bit more."

The divisions in Tsiigehtchic echo those in Fort McPherson, a nearby 
community that was host to hearings Friday.

While many supported the development, including area chiefs and elders, 
many spoke about development in the 1970s, when the gas fields that 
would fill the current pipeline were discovered. That boom and bust left 
a legacy of addiction and social disruption and little in the way of 
lasting benefits, the panel heard.

More evidence of community doubts about the project came last week, when 
the community of Fort Good Hope voted down a proposed access and 
benefits agreement with the project's proponents by 114-70. That means 
Imperial Oil and other companies still have no agreement on terms under 
which they could work in the northern half of the Sahtu region northwest 
of Great Bear Lake.

"Clearly, there's some division in the community," said Imperial 
spokesman Pius Rolheiser from Calgary.

"We need to regroup and reassess and decide what our next step is going 
to be. It will likely involve going back to the bargaining table."

The National Energy Board has the right to impose mediation or even 
expropriation, but Rolheiser called that an extreme step.
-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.