Yellowknife (Dec 08/03) - Premier candidate Joe Handley says there's a 90-per-cent chance a huge hydro-electric dam will be built along the Great Bear River, providing a tremendous benefit to the communities living along the Mackenzie Valley through lowering electrical costs.

The dam could dwarf the Talston Dam in both size and electrical output. It is being championed to the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Producers group by leaders within the communities of Tulita and Deline as well as Northwest Power.

The producers group said they may in time use electricity from the dam to power compression stations along the route, providing an environmentally friendly and cost-effective solution to natural gas delivery.

Individuals within Tulita and Deline have been quietly working on the game plan for the past two years, said Handley.

"I spoke with Fred Carmichael, chairman of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, recently and he said the folks bringing this idea forward are really working well. The Aboriginal Pipeline Group is in favour of the notion coming together," said Handley.

While Handley held two thumbs up for the proposal, Imperial Oil spokesman Hart Searle was hesitant in giving the project the green light.

With only one hydro line, the pipeline would be at risk of being down if the line was down, said Searle. Then there's the problem with cost. The hydro solution would have to be cheaper than natural gas, said Searle. Natural gas burning is the normal solution in firing compressors along a pipeline route.

The biggest source of difficulty, however, is the timing of the regulatory process, said Searle.

The pipeline producers are well into their environmental hearings process.

The dam would have to go through a similar environmental hearing process, they would have to create baselines on environmental studies and go through the same process we have, said Searle.

The producers group will submit their final proposal to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board with natural gas burning compressors for the pipe, said Searle. At the same time, however, the pipeline producers spokesperson did not shut the door on becoming the dam's biggest customer.

"We need to have this all laid out in front of us: the reliability, the cost, the energy efficiency and schedules. To make a judgement we have to keep a sharp eye on costs. We're operating on the frontier which is always a challenge economically ... we certainly did not say no," said Searle.