Inuvik (May 20/05) - Imperial Oil may have halted engineering and geotechnical work on the proposed pipeline, but according to spokesperson Hart Searle, the company remains committed to working through the regulatory processes.

It was business-as-usual at Imperial Oil's Mackenzie Gas Project office in Inuvik last week. Pictured here, administrative assistant Wendy Smith speaks to Winston Moses.

"We need to see the same demonstrable progress we've seen since April 28," said Searle of the high level of initiative taken by the federal and territorial governments since Imperial's announcement sent shock waves through the Inuvik business community.

"We're encouraged by that."

It's a level of initiative that Searle says Imperial would like to see with regard to action on its permit applications relating to the project.

"We've had some difficulty getting fairly straightforward permits," added Searle, talking about permits for granular and barge landing sites, "which would allow us to get in and do our geotechnical surveys."

"When it comes to the actual construction, we need upwards of five or six thousand permits so this doesn't give us a lot of confidence."

Searle says Imperial is also looking for fiscal certainties from the territorial and federal governments about taxes and royalty regimes.

Premier Joe Handley is hoping the federal government will cough up $100 million to deal with current socio-economic shortfalls in the territory and Searle says Imperial is standing by its own socio-economic commitments.

Preference to Northerners

Those commitments include giving preference to Northern businesses for procuring products and services, as well as hiring residents from the corridor communities.

Imperial has also committed a portion of the funding for the $13 million Aboriginal Skills to Employment Program, designed to prepare workers for employment on the project.

Over the past five years, Imperial has invested more than $350 million in the pipeline project. If the project gets the go-ahead, the company says $900 million will be spent on construction in the territory.

The project is also expected to provide between 1,400 and 1,500 jobs to Northerners in each year of the four-year construction period.