Sahtu group says full ownership possible
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Norman Wells (May 28/01) - Some Sahtu leaders are joining Deh Cho communities in denouncing the size of the slice of the pie that oil giants are offering if a natural gas pipeline is built through the Mackenzie Valley.
Norman Wells-based Western Arctic Energy Corporation, for one, is aiming for 100 per cent aboriginal ownership. President Winter Lennie said last week the company has no money but the billions needed for construction can be borrowed.
He said the Aboriginal Pipeline Working Group (APWG), which has been negotiating with Gulf, Esso and Shell, has been offered an ownership stake of just five per cent.
Group chair Nellie Cournoyea did not return phone calls.
Western Arctic Energy, part of the Ernie McDonald Land Claim Corporation, is looking for support from Sahtu's six other land claim corporations, but one chief doubts the 100 per cent ownership plan will fly.
"Who's going to loan us the billions of dollars to build a pipeline when we don't have any expertise?" asked the chief, who did not want to be named.
Divisions could come to a head at a series of meetings in Hay River beginning June 4. Lennie and others plan to be there, but nobody knows what will happen.
Edward McCauley of the Tulita Land and Financial Corporation said representatives of that land claim company will decide which group to support at the meetings. He added he has met with Western Arctic Energy, but "we're not too sure" which side to take.
"We do support the pipeline but we haven't got that much information from either group," McCauley said.
"We have major concerns with the proposal" from the major oil companies, Lennie said. "It's an absolute sellout, the most terrible business arrangement you can imagine."
The Sahtu developments come on the heels of recent criticism of the pipeline process in the Deh Cho, where Grand Chief Michael Nadli said the working group has no mandate to forge a deal with oil companies.
Lennie, who represents about 175 shareholders from Norman Wells, is also against the working group negotiating a deal.
Since the group could be doing that anyway, success in negotiating a greater ownership share -- it is believed a one third stake is being sought -- still leaves each community with a tiny portion, Lennie said.
The pipeline would cross four regions, and a fifth share is being set aside for other aboriginal groups elsewhere in the North, Lennie said.
That leaves each region with a relatively modest 6.6 per cent stake in the pipeline.
He pointed out that in places other than the North, oil and gas companies are not interested in owning pipelines.
They leave that up to companies like Enbridge, which owns the pipeline linking Norman Wells to Zama, in Alberta.
"We're wondering why the producers are saying they want to own a hundred per cent when traditionally they don't," Lennie said.
Until now Western Arctic Energy, formed last summer, has kept a low profile.
