Inuvik (May 06/05) - In the wake of an Imperial Oil announcement last week that the company is halting engineering work on the proposed Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline, Aboriginal Pipeline Group chair Fred Carmichael says its time to bring in mediators.

"The time has come for aboriginal governments and industry to stop talking about coming together and working together and just do it," said Carmichael, adding that Imperial's announcement was a "serious issue and a wake up call."

"I think bringing in a mediation team would be a better way of going about things."

On April 28, Imperial Oil, representing the proponents of the pipeline, said all work on activities like geotechnical data-gathering programs, detailed engineering and preparatory work on gathering programs would be stopped.

The announcement came right on the heels of Shell Canada Ltd., which owns a 25 per cent stake in the project, and Imperial Oil both expressing fears about project delays and spiraling costs.

"However, the proponents are continuing all work associated with advancing the regulatory review process, which is currently focused on providing regulators with the information they require," an Imperial Oil press release stated.

Senior vice-president of Imperial Oil, Mike Yeager, attributes much of the current impasse to aboriginal proposals that "far exceed the scope" of the project.

"(Their demands) are many, many fold, into the hundreds of millions of dollars beyond what are clearly not the responsibility of the current project," said Yeager. "They make requests to deal with existing social issues that would more rightly be made of the territorial and federal governments."

However, aboriginal leadership in this region is not ready to shoulder the entire blame for the situation.

"The Memorandum of Understanding (for the project) was signed in 2001 with aboriginal leaders," said Gwich'in Tribal Council lead negotiator Richard Nerysoo.

"The question must be asked why and who was responsible for the delay in commencing these negotiations that didn't start until late 2003?"

Nerysoo's comments are echoed by the APG chair.

"I'm disappointed by both oil and government pointing fingers at aboriginal people," said Carmichael.

He noted that more than 1,000 questions were submitted to the producers regarding their original Environmental Impact Statement, which has created more delay in the review process. Answering those questions is big business' responsibility, he said.

"Had the oil companies done a proper job when they made the applications, they wouldn't have had so many questions to respond to."

As to the question of whose responsibility it is to mitigate any socio-economic impacts of the project, Carmichael said the stakeholders need to get on the same page.

"We don't expect oil companies to bail us out of the social situation we're in but government and industry have to get together to discuss how to handle the social agenda," he said.

Carmichael went on to note that government has been slow in providing the promised cash to aboriginal groups to take part in the review process.

Oil and gas stakeholders in the project have spent $350 million on the pipeline project in the last five years. The final cost of the project is estimated at $7 billion.

Pushing the merits

of ownership

Touting the Aboriginal Pipeline Group's one-third ownership of the proposed pipeline, Carmichael talked about the money at stake and the importance of the aboriginal share in the project.

"The number one benefit we will get from this project is through ownership," he said.

For the first 20 years of the pipeline's operation, Carmichael expects $20 million per year to come into the aboriginal purse. After the loans are repaid, that amount is expected to jump to $120 million per year.

To date, the Inuvialuit, Gwich'in and Sahtu have signed on as partners with the APG.

While the Deh Cho have not yet come on board, Carmichael says "the door is open."

- with files from Jack Danylchuk and Mike W. Bryant