Chretien ignites debate over route
Richard Gleeson and Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 20/00) - A short comment Prime Minister Jean Chretien made during a 90-minute stop in Whitehorse has triggered outrage across the NWT.
Chretien said an agreement signed between the U.S. and Canada in the 1970s requires that Alaska gas be transported down the Alaska Highway and through the Yukon.
"They have virtually no choice but to take the gas of Alaska through the Yukon to the market and everybody along the line will benefit from that," Chretien told supporters of Liberal Yukon candidate Larry Bagwell Thursday evening.
It's a comment that has resulted in concern in the NWT.
"Oil companies will look at his statement and wonder, 'If it's going down through Alaska, why are we spending our money in the Mackenzie Delta?'" said NWT Chamber of Commerce President Kevin Diebold.
As soon as it heard of the statement, the territorial government was on the phone to the Prime Minister's Office.
"The Prime Minister, now that he's come out and made this statement, has to clarify for all of us what his position is for Mackenzie Valley gas and a stand alone Mackenzie Valley pipeline," said Joe Handley, NWT Minister of Resources Wildlife and Economic Development.
The NWT and Yukon governments are competing to transport Alaskan gas reserves to market. The NWT is proposing to transport it down a Mackenzie Valley pipeline via an offshore, or 'over the top,' link to Alaska's north coast.
"It's inappropriate to make it during an election," said Handley. "Personally, I think it's very damaging to our Liberal MP, who is a member of his cabinet."
Rivals quickly used the issue to attack incumbent Ethel Blondin-Andrew, who could not be reached for comment.
"The GNWT has been working day and night with aboriginal groups across the valley...to push the message forward," said NDP candidate Dennis Bevington. "Our MP should be projecting that message and the effectiveness stands for itself."
Canadian Alliance campaign co-ordinator David Wind blasted the Liberal Western Arctic MP over the Prime Minster's statement, accusing her of being ineffective.
"It's amazing that we have a Liberal MP who has been a junior cabinet minister for two terms and has not been more effective in lobbying (for the NWT)," said Wind.
Progressive Conservative candidate Bruce McLaughlin said the PM's support for a Yukon route could cost the NWT twice -- "construction jobs and, in the long term, the use of a pipeline to bring our gas to market."
"This is something they were counting on here and in Inuvik," he said.
