Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 11/02) - As gargantuan a project as it could be, a Mackenzie Valley pipeline would be overshadowed by the development it would spur.

Determining how much of that development they consider will be one of the first tasks of assessing the impacts of a pipeline.

The buzzword for such indirect impacts is "cumulative effects."

Spokesperson Hart Searle said the group of oil and gas companies proposing the pipeline will be considering cumulative effects in the development of a pipeline proposal. He downplayed the effect a pipeline would have in the valley.

"Will a pipeline spur more exploration activity? I think that's a bit difficult to say right now," Searle said. "I think time will tell."

The mere prospect of a pipeline has caused a huge jump in exploration. In the Mackenzie Delta area, virtually abandoned by the oil and gas industry when the first bid to build a Mackenzie pipeline failed, almost $1 billion will be spent on exploration over the next five years.

In the Far North Oil and Gas Review, the territorial government's pipeline adviser referred to the "immense" economic impact of a pipeline.

Last fall a coalition of environmental groups called on government and industry to accept a series of guiding principles to guide Northern oil and gas development.

The principles included looking more closely at the including looking more closely at cumulative effects and a "conservation first" approach to development.

"What we want to see is land set aside for protected areas within the areas affected by development," said World Wildlife Fund NWT executive director Bill Carpenter.

The Canadian Arctic Resources Committee is encouraging government to look long-term.

"Certainly you don't build a pipeline for five to 10 years, you build it for 50 to 100 years," said CARC research director Kevin O'Reilly.

The scope of the environmental assessment is the type of issue the regulatory authorities want public input on, said National Energy Board spokesperson Bonnie Gray.

On Monday, 14 of the agencies that will review the proposal released a draft co-operation plan. The plan, aimed at identifying a co-ordinated process for review of the project. The deadline for public input on the plan is March 8.