Fort Simpson (Mar 11/05) - A meeting on the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline lead to disputes over language and intervenor funding last week.

When Laura Tutcho read a prepared speech in Slavey at the gathering there were no interpreters available.

Immediately following her presentation, Jennifer Duncan, a co-founder of the Arctic Indigenous Youth Alliance, expressed concern over the absence of aboriginal language interpreters.

Meeting organizers said language wasn't an issue. "The only person here who might require an interpreter is Laura (Tutcho)," said Bob Turner, a community relations and logistics manager with the Northern Gas Project Secretariat. "We have no concerns with regard to interpreters."

But Duncan disagreed.

"Should interpreters be there to encourage involvement? Or should aboriginal people show up knowing everything will be in English?" she said. "I thought it was disrespectful for the Northern Gas Project Secretariat to say, 'We knew no aboriginal people would show up, so there's no interpreters."

Duncan also said neither the Inuvik nor the Yellowknife secretariat offices provide ongoing aboriginal language interpretation.

Members of the public attending the meeting were also frustrated by the lack of new information coming from Northern Gas Project Secretariat and its executive director Brian Chambers.

He refused to discuss pipeline construction issues at the meeting.

Joint Review Panel (JPR) manager Paula Pachulak said the group's main purpose was to field questions, provide opportunities for public comment and consider traditional knowledge.

Kevin O'Reilly, registered as an individual intervenor with the JRP, wondered why the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency wasn't at the meeting.

The agency administers intervenor funding for the panel.

Duncan said her group was approved for support in December, "and now it's March and we still haven't received our funding."