Yellowknife (May 09/05) - First Nations on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline route want up to $70 million a year for use of their land.

Dehgah Alliance consultant Joe Acorn, a representative the Dehcho First Nations on access and benefit agreements, said the Sahtu, the Gwich'in and the Deh Cho are all "looking at" supporting the $70 million figure.

The proposal was developed by former premier Stephen Kakfwi, a consultant to the K'asho Got'ine of Fort Good Hope. The communities are asking that payment be made directly to aboriginal governments.

The pipeline does not run through Inuvialuit territory. Inuvialuit want revenue for access to their land for a proposed gas-gathering system and a processing plant to be built near Inuvik.

Imperial Oil does not like the idea, said Acorn.

"It would set a precedent," he said.

Imperial Oil spokesman Hart Searle said the proposal, which amounts to a property tax, is outside the scope of normal operations for the company. But Imperial's parent company, ExxonMobil, has already made payments directly to indigenous groups.

"I believe working with the World Bank, in Africa, specifically in Chad and Cameroon, benefits are paid to those groups," said ExxonMobil spokesman Bob Davis.

When Imperial announced that it was stopping engineering work on the pipeline, a company spokesman said First Nations were demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation and asking the companies to build hospitals and schools. Searle said these reports are wrong, and based on "other people's interpretation of what we have said."

The aboriginal proposal is based in part on the Northern Pipeline Act, which shows how much property tax could be collected by Yukon First Nations if the Alaska Highway Pipeline is built.

Based on the act, access and benefit agreements would be worth close to $70 million a year for Mackenzie Valley First Nations.

The fee is also based on the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association's calculations that pipelines pay on average, a 1.88 per cent property tax throughout the rest of Canada.

The pipeline itself will cost $4.5 billion to construct. Based on the industry average of 1.88 per cent, Imperial would pay closer to $80 million a year on property tax south of the border.

K'asho Got'ine consultants said part of the problem is that Premier Joe Handley and Finance Minister Floyd Roland do not want to allow First Nations to charge a property tax.

Handley will be in Ottawa next week to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan to discuss ways to deal with aboriginal issues and speed the regulatory process.