[IPSM] Federal Court: Ottawa didn't consult Dene Tha' over gas pipeline

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Time to step up pressure/agitational efforts. While tearing up the 
small, piecemeal changes proposed through the Kelowna Accord & the AFN 
as "too expensive", the last line of the article reads:

"Imperial is expected to demand more than $2 billion in federal 
assistance to complete the northern megaproject."

The pipeline has already been pegged at a cost of $7.5 Billion... 
subsidies are "needed" while some of the communities to be effected by 
the pMGP don't yet have regular water systems.

Macdonald


Court: Ottawa didn't consult Dene Tha' over gas pipeline
By BOB WEBER
	

EDMONTON (CP) - The future of hearings into a $7-billion natural gas 
pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley has been thrown into doubt after a 
Federal Court judge ruled an aboriginal group on the southern end of the 
proposed route had been unfairly shut out of the regulatory process.

Justice Michael Phelan ruled that Ottawa failed to consult with the Dene 
Tha' from the beginning of the process. He ordered hearings on any 
aspect of the project affecting Dene Tha' lands in northern Alberta to 
cease.

That means the entire process is dead until the Dene Tha's concerns are 
met, said their lawyer, Robert Freedman.

He said some issues at the hearings - such as wildlife and cumulative 
impacts - affect the whole pipeline route.

"It's sort of like cutting a main artery out - the heart can't pump," 
Freedman said. "That's basically what (Phelan's) done."

Federal government spokesman Nicholas Girard said it was too early to 
say what the impact would be on the review process, or whether Ottawa 
would appeal the ruling.

The planned 1,220-kilometre pipeline, considered crucial to northern 
economic development, would allow southern homeowners and businesses to 
tap into huge gas fields in the Mackenzie Delta, on the northwest corner 
of the Northwest Territories.

A regulatory process that brought federal energy and environment 
officials together with aboriginal groups along the route was set up in 
2002.

However, the Dene Tha', who number about 2,500 members on seven reserves 
in northwestern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southern 
end of the Northwest Territories, were excluded from those discussions.

That's because the final leg of the pipeline and the infrastructure 
connecting it to existing networks would be in northern Alberta, falling 
under that province's jurisdiction.

The Dene Tha' have long argued that separating the connecting facility 
from the main hearings robs them of any input. While all other 
aboriginal groups have some kind of representation on the panel, the 
Dene Tha' are restricted to making a presentation.

Nor have they benefitted from a federal promise of $500 million over 10 
years to address social problems created by the project.

In his ruling, Phelan wrote the development on Dene Tha' lands was just 
as much part of the pipeline as any other work.

He ordered a remedial hearing on such issues as:

-whether the Crown should appoint a chief federal consulting officer or 
negotiator;

-the mandate for any consultation;

-what technical assistance and funding should be made available for the 
Dene Tha' to help carry out that consultation;

-the role, if any, the court may play in supervising the process;

-and the role of the joint review panel and National Energy Board might 
have in the consultation process.

Dene Tha' Chief James Ahnassay called the ruling a vindication.

"We're looking forward to sitting down with the federal government and 
getting some meaningful consultations," he said. "They should have been 
talking to us a long time ago."

Ahnassay said the Dene Tha' might consider asking for an equity share in 
the pipeline.

"We're very much open-minded to things like that," he said.

A coalition of other aboriginal groups along the route plan to take a 
one-third share of the project.

In Friday trading on the TSX, the shares of main pipeline proponent 
Imperial Oil fell 84 cents to close at $41.96, a drop of nearly two per 
cent.

Imperial spokesman Pius Rolheiser said the company will take a couple of 
days to study the decision before commenting on its impact on the hearings.

N.W.T. Industry Minister Brendan Bell said the decision is worrying for 
pipeline supporters.

"There's at least the potential for delay and for that reason I'm 
concerned," he said. "I just hope the two sides can come together to 
solve this."

Imperial recently said updated cost estimates for the Mackenzie Valley 
natural gas pipeline may not be available until the new year.

Imperial is expected to demand more than $2 billion in federal 
assistance to complete the northern megaproject.
-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.