 | E-mail this story |  | Write letter to editor |  | Order a classified ad |
| E-mail this story | | Write letter to editor | | Order a classified ad |
A clerk with the Mining Recorder's office in Yellowknife said a decision is pending on those claims and should be made by the end of the week.
Bernier's claims have been active since Oct. 26, 1998 and were due to expire on Sunday.
She is the wife of Paul Bernier, vice-president of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), who removed himself from the Mackenzie Valley pipeline file last week after the Deh Cho First Nations lodged a complaint, questioning the federal official's involvement with the mineral claims.
The DCFN held press conferences in Ottawa and Yellowknife on Oct. 21 to announce they were seeking an investigation of Paul Bernier. He was involved in drafting the regulatory procedure that will govern the pipeline.
Elise Dhaussy, senior communications adviser with the CEAA, said the agency will appoint an independent investigator to examine the case.
"We took these allegations very seriously and we intend to address them," she said.
Chris Reid, chief negotiator for the Deh Cho First Nations, said that's not an acceptable response in itself.
"(Bernier's) work is substantially done anyway. It doesn't undo the damage that's already been done," he said.
Reid said a memorandum of understanding for a joint panel to oversee a pipeline environmental assessment -- which would include Deh Cho representation -- could be concluded before Christmas, if the federal government is willing.
Without such an overture, court action is "a virtual certainty," Reid said. The DCFN would also be seeking approximately $200,000 in costs and damages in court, stemming from an earlier unsuccessful court challenge against Maureen Bernier's mineral claims by Liidlii Kue First Nation in 2000.
Industry is watching
Hart Searle, spokesperson for the Mackenzie Gas Project, said oil and gas companies are monitoring the clash between the DCFN and the federal government, but staying out of it.
Whether the quarrel proves detrimental to the proposed pipeline remains to be seen.
However, Searle acknowledged that lengthy delays could allow the competing Alaska-Yukon pipeline route to overtake the Mackenzie Valley project.
"That could put significant hurdles in front of us," he said. "That is a real concern."
Searle would not comment on whether a pipeline would be built without the Deh Cho's consent.
"Our desire would be that discussions continue, that positions don't harden so much that people aren't willing to listen," he said.
Could be compensated
Asked how Mackenzie Gas Project plans to address existing mineral claims along the pipeline route, spokesperson Hart Searle replied, "We don't know."
Imperial Oil, the lead company in the Mackenzie Gas Project, has a legal team working on the matter, according to Searle.
He added that Imperial Oil has routinely dealt with other oil and gas companies, utilities and farmers who have pre-existing rights to land. In those cases access fees are usually paid as compensation, he noted.
