Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 15/02) - A Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline would fuel the Northwest Territories' economy with billions of dollars and more than 53,000 jobs.

Labour income alone adds up to more than $3 billion according to study sponsored by the Government of the Northwest Territories and Trans Canada Pipelines Ltd.

"The Northwest Territories will get so much benefit they will probably not be able to absorb it all," said Robert Marshall a Trans Canada employee on loan to the territorial government. The territory already has the lowest unemployment rate in the country according to last month's NWT employment statistics.

A proposal to ship Canadian Arctic natural gas southward via a $3 billion pipeline following the Mackenzie Valley was made by energy producers known as the Mackenzie Delta Producers' Group along with one-third partners Aboriginal Pipeline Corporation.

The producers include Imperial Oil Resources, Conoco Canada, Shell Canada and ExxonMobil Canada. Following a feasibility study they have committed $250 million to a project definition stage.

The Mackenzie Delta-Beaufort Sea has an estimated nine trillion cubic feet of proven reserves waiting to be shipped.

Territorial government revenue will add up to as much as $4.5 billion. "The federal government's revenue is extremely high compared to the Northwest Territories government revenues." said Marshall explaining the study is a step toward going after better natural resource revenue sharing.

The pipeline's economic spinoffs could add as much as $49 billion to the NWT gross domestic product(GDP) and $77 billion to Canada's GDP.

About $8.2 billion would go to the wages and salaries of people employed from pipeline development and 53,428 person years of employment in the NWT alone would be created.

This week Marshall will be making a presentation including the study's findings to the NWT Construction Association in Yellowknife.

"Construction is really just a short-term peak," said Marshall noting that part of the project will take only two years and go on only for four-month winter periods.

"Once that pipeline is in place you are going to have access to market for any gas you find therefore you will see a lot more junior and intermediate exploration companies coming into the Northwest Territories."