Inuvik (July 21/03) - Before a Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project is presented for regulatory approval, land access and benefit agreements will be put in place between producers and First Nations.

The producers have formed a negotiating team which will work with aboriginal groups along the pipeline route to negotiate benefits and access agreements.

Pius Rolheiser, spokesperson for the Mackenzie Gas Project, said the memorandum of understanding signed with the Aboriginal Pipeline Group established ownership, but did not grant access to the pipeline right-of-way.

The 1,300-kilometre pipeline will travel across Inuvialuit, Gwich'in, Sahtu and Deh Cho lands and individual agreements must be negotiated with each group.

"We have a core group of people, who over the next couple months will be working with individual bands to negotiate access agreements with them," Rolheiser said. "We're at a fairly preliminary stage of that process.

The Mackenzie Gas Project will not file regulatory applications until they have those agreements in place.

"We see this as a prerequisite; we must complete these agreements before we file," he said.

The K'asho Got'ine Dene First Nation comprises six Dene and Metis groups in the Sahtu, which filed notice with Imperial that they have formed a negotiating team to strike a deal with the producers.

"We see it as a very positive development," Rolheiser said.

Fred Carmichael, president of the Gwich'in Tribal Council, said they have begun to select a negotiations team with representation from each community to work on the access agreement.

He said once a deal is negotiated the board of directors will review the deal and present it to the people.

"We would make our recommendation that this was the best possible deal we could get and ask them if it was good enough," Carmichael said.

The money made from the land access fees will go directly to the people, he said. Money earned from the pipeline fees will go to repay the loan on the group's share of the pipeline but the communities will also share in those funds.

"Not all of it will go to repay the loan," he said. "A portion will go to paying down the loan and a portion will go to the aboriginal community."