Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Fort Liard (Jan 21/00) - Meet U.S. Ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin and one of the first things you notice is his Duke University school ring.

Giffin went to university in North Carolina and, before taking the ambassador's post, was a partner with law firm Long, Aldridge and Norman in Atlanta.

But if you think Giffin's background is restricted to the south, think again. In fact, he went to high school in Etobicoke, now part of metropolitan Toronto. He lived in Quebec for several years. His father, born in Pembroke, Ont., worked for an insurance company in Montreal.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Quebec's separatist movement was about "equality," Giffin said.

Sounds like Giffin knows more about Canada than some Canadians, says Jim Simpson, seated across the table from Giffin at a cabin on Fisherman Lake northwest of Fort Liard. Simpson is the president of Chevron Resources Canada, part of San Francisco-based Chevron Corp.

Giffin and Simpson were among a dozen people in Fort Liard Tuesday for a first-hand look at the area's natural gas development. The trip was organized out of NWT Commissioner Dan Marion's office.

Simpson said the company is expecting permits very soon which will give the go-ahead for the company and its partners to build a $100- million pipeline connecting Chevron K-29, Canadian Forest N-61 and Ranger P-66 gas wells north of Liard with the Westcoast pipeline which ends at Amoco's Pointed Mountain well.

"In order to represent the U.S. Government in Canada, I have to do the best I can to learn about Canada. The North is a huge part of the geography and culture of Canada," Giffin said. In the Liard area, there is an opportunity to learn about how companies are working with an aboriginal community, he adds.

"We are happy to talk to the U.S. ambassador about our gas development plans and the opportunities and challenges it has brought our people," Fort Liard Chief Harry Deneron said. Next week, Deneron is hosting a meeting of 40 NWT aboriginal leaders to discuss pipeline and oil and gas developments.

"We are proud of our working partnership with Chevron Canada Resources. Chevron was the first company to give Beaver Enterprises (a band-owned company) a chance to be the primary contractor for some of their road construction work.

"We know the U.S. market is where our gas is going," he said.

U.S. demand for natural gas is expected to hit 90 billion cubic feet per day by 2010. Currently, North America produces 65 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. That means producers will be looking for another 25 billion cubic feet of gas a day.