Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Nov 01/02) - Officials from the territorial government held a public meeting in Inuvik on Monday night to relate how they plan to deal with the positive and negative effects of a Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

Senior staff from the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development spoke to a crowded room at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex on how they are dealing with the pipeline situation on political, economic and social fronts.

Doug Matthews, director of minerals, oil and gas, spoke of the possibility of linking the Mackenzie line to an "Over the Top" pipeline to Prudhoe Bay.

He said the political powers in Alaska and the Yukon don't want that route even though it would be much cheaper than the Alaska Highway route.

"This is an expensive project; they're looking at about $20 billion US, which is about $190 zillion Canadian dollars," Matthews joked.

He said the energy bill that was recently stalled in the United States Senate, due to a pending election, offers many government incentives that Canada can also provide, but disputes the floor price subsidy for Alaskan gas.

"The problem is that no matter where the price of gas goes, (Alaskan gas) has a competitive advantage over all other basins," Matthews said.

After the Nov. 5 election the Senate will go back to debating the bill, but Matthews promises the GNWT and federal government will continue to fight the subsidy.

"Both ourselves and Canada are not going to back down now," he said.

Ian Butters, regional petroleum advisor, said the pipeline will just be the tip of the iceberg compared to other work that will be done in the Delta.

"That's really just the bullet line that's going from Inuvik to Alberta," Butters said. "There is going to be something occurring out here in the Delta that's as big or bigger effect and that's development of the production fields."

Butters said the gathering infrastructure and ongoing and future exploration will provide many years of work should the pipeline get the nod.

Senior policy advisor Robert Redshaw told how the GNWT established a steering committee composed of all the deputy ministers from the GNWT as well as DIAND and aboriginal leaders to decide government direction. From the steering committee a number of sub-committees were formed to deal with:

-Health and social impacts

-Community impacts on infrastructure

-Secondary industries

-Biophysical study

-Training and development

-Socio-economic agreements

Following the presentation, the panel fielded some questions regarding aboriginal benefits from the pipeline and Matthews commented on the recent appointment of Roland Priddle to negotiate the pipeline loan guarantees on behalf of the federal government. "I know Mr. Priddle and I know he wouldn't have taken that job on, if he hadn't been secure that there is going to be significant federal support."