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Pipeline financing deal generates excitement up and down the Mackenzie Valley

Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 23/03) - For 17-year-old Erica Joe an $80 million pipeline funding deal holds the promise of something very important to her peers in Aklavik: jobs.

"A lot of job opportunities will open up for Aklavik," Joe said Thursday. "There isn't a lot of job opportunity there because it is a small community."

That was exactly the reason Northern aboriginal groups formed the Aboriginal Pipeline Group said Fred Carmichael.

He described the deal as "the start for our people to become self-sufficient." (See more about the deal on A25)

Rumoured for months, the agreement will see TransCanada Pipelines loan the APG $80 million for its share of the pipeline's project definition phase.

"(The Aboriginal Pipeline Group) played high-stakes poker with markers and walked away with the pot," smiled one industry insider.

Marlene Peffer, a 21-year-old Inuvik resident, was one of the young people paying close attention to the pipeline news.

"I think it is a good employment opportunity and hopefully they'll hire locals," she said. "They should hire locals wherever the company is based."

The pending oil and gas boom offers "many pros and cons," said Desmond Loreen, 20, of Inuvik.

"It's going to be an economic boom, but are we prepared for it?"

"I think we're more prepared for it than the last boom," said Amanda Johns, the 18-year-old youth representative on Inuvik Town Council.

"People have been preparing for it and companies are taking more initiative to develop skills locally."

News of the funding deal rippled down the Mackenzie Valley.

Hay River Mayor Duncan McNeill said his town will benefit most during the construction phase of a pipeline. "Anything to advance that is good."

Much of the construction material and supplies will come into town by rail or road and be barged further north.

Imperial Oil has also told the town that the construction phase would create a 300-person camp in Hay River for 18-24 months.

"We expect for two or three years Hay River will be extremely busy," McNeill said.

- With files from Norm Poole, Erin Fletcher and Paul Bickford