Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 09/05) - Oil and natural gas reserves in the Northwest Territories are being "plundered" while Ottawa does little to secure a prosperous future for Northerners, a leading environmental consultant said earlier this week.

Lower than average taxes on resource development have cost the territories more than $500 million since the late 1990s, said long-time Northerner Peter Cizek, who works for the Dehcho First Nations, during a round table discussion on the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline, Saturday.

Cizek was one of four speakers during a decidedly anti-pipeline discussion at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife. The event was hosted by Alternatives North and the Pembina Institute, an international organization that promotes sustainable energy.

"The government is giving them away for virtually nothing," Cizek said.

The federally-imposed tax rate for oil companies in the Northwest Territories has averaged around six per cent during the last half-decade, compared with nearly 30 per cent in Alberta, Cizek said.

Unlike that province, royalties collected in the territories flow straight to Ottawa.

The federal government, Cizek said, has made too many concessions to oil and gas companies in an effort to promote development in the North.

Award-winning journalist Andrew Nikiforuk blasted territorial and federal politicians for not taking a harder line in negotiations with the oil companies.

"The industry is laughing at you guys," said Nikiforuk, who accused Ottawa of treating the NWT like a "colony to be exploited."

If the pipeline goes ahead, the territories will need regulators with "balls of steel" to stop oil companies from running roughshod over the environment, said Nikiforuk.

The freelance writer and author, whose articles have appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean's and Saturday Night magazines, has spent more than a decade covering Alberta's petroleum industry.

Regulatory boards in that province receive about 60 per cent of their funding from corporations and, not surprisingly, approve 97 per cent of development applications, he said. He warned that without a concerted effort from territorial leaders, the NWT could see development flourish at the expense of the environment.

The government should set firm boundaries for industry and set aside protected areas with "minefields" if necessary, he joked.

"(Oil companies) will still want to go there," he said.

The petroleum companies, headed by Imperial Oil, were criticized last month for reportedly seeking nearly $2 billion in tax breaks from Ottawa. Despite the near-record high price of natural gas, the companies suggested the $7 billion pipeline was not economical.

Nikiforuk scoffed at those suggestions. There is "no such thing as stranded gas" at current prices, he said.

With billions of dollars in oil and gas reserves, the NWT could become a "have" jurisdiction as long as political leaders insisted on a fair deal with the international oil conglomerates, Nikiforuk said.