Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 03/02) - A pipeline was pitched to Deh Cho communities last week.

"The concerns were similar in each community," said Aboriginal Pipeline Group representative Doug Cardinal. "They want to see direct benefits."

A combination of the APG and Mackenzie Delta gas producers led by Imperial Oil Resources flew to Fort Simpson, Jean Marie River, Wrigley and Trout Lake for community meetings. The tour ended at a Deh Cho First Nations meeting in Simpson on Friday.

The group gave a 90-minute presentation to audiences wanting to know what kind of environmental impacts there would be and the number of jobs resulting from a pipeline.

About 40 people turned up at the meeting in Fort Simpson; fewer than 20 in the other of the communities. Imperial Oil will be opening pipeline consultation offices this summer in Inuvik, Norman Wells and Fort Simpson.

The producers and the APG want to build a $3-billion pipeline to carry natural gas down the Mackenzie Valley to Alberta. The consultations are part of a $250-million second stage that Imperial has dubbed project definition.

Looking after the land

"The big question is the protection of the land and not having a pipeline going through the region like in the past," said Cardinal, referring to a pipeline built during the mid-1980s to carry Imperial Oil's crude from Norman Wells.

In Fort Simpson, Ernest Tonka, a long-time heavy machinery operator, wanted to know if gas companies are merely trying to placate the region without offering any job security.

He spoke at length about his difficulties getting work when the Norman Wells pipeline was being constructed, a victim of stringent union membership rules.

"Don't tell us these things and bring us back to the '80s when we got shafted," said Tonka, Our people need a lot of healing. Can you deal with that?"

Trout Lake Sambaa K'e Chief Dennis Deneron was interested in what the pipeline group had to say, but was withholding his opinion for Friday's Deh Cho First Nations meeting.

"I just want to hear them out and see what they have to say."