Yellowknife (Mar 13/06) - A feud among leaders of the Norman Wells Land Corporation has created confusion as to whether or not it has an access and benefits agreement with Imperial Oil.

Winter Lennie, a director with the group which was formerly known as the Ernie MacDonald Land Corp., insists proper ratification of the deal never occurred. President Todd McCauley and the group's vice-president signed off without the board first voting its approval, he said.

"It's just not right denying members their rights," said Lennie, who is also a past president of the Metis corporation.

Last week Lennie took matters into his own hands and leaked a copy of the confidential agreement to News/North and other media outlets. CBC reports the agreement shows Imperial will pay the land corporations in Norman Wells, Tulita and Deline a total of $17 million for access to the roughly 320-square-kilometres needed in the area to build the pipeline.

"There is due diligence that has to be done," he said.

After several requests for interviews, McCauley released a written statement that said Lennie's actions have cost him the confidence and trust of the group's members.

"These negotiations were confidential. Mr. Lennie was supposed to be working for the best interests of all of our beneficiaries, of which he is one," wrote McCauley.

"I have great difficulty understanding why he has taken this regrettable move and released these documents."

A December vote by Norman Wells beneficiaries at a meeting held in accordance with the group's bylaws gave him the authority to ratify the agreement, he states.

Lennie refused to acknowledge the validity of that vote, because he said only about 20 of the group's more than 200 members actually showed up.

"Norman Wells has not signed on to the agreement," he said. "We need to have proper ratification to proceed."

Imperial Oil, which is handling the negotiations regarding the pipeline on behalf of project proponents, said Lennie's release of the agreement and the resulting breach in confidence was "unfortunate and a concern to us."

But as far as Imperial is concerned, it has a fully ratified and executed access and benefits agreements with Norman Wells, Tulita and Deline, added company spokesperson Pius Rolheiser.

Further up the Mackenzie Valley, Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake together said "no deal" to the pipeline last month.

"Before Imperial said to us, 'That's the offer, take it or leave it,' but now they're showing more flexibility," said Fort Good Hope Chief Ron Pierrot, adding the company is now willing to discuss changing some of the document's wording and the compensation going to the two northern-most Sahtu communities.

The deal won't move forward until everyone in Fort Good Hope is comfortable with what's being discussed, including the young people, he assured.

"I don't care if the pipeline doesn't happen now ... we can afford to wait another 15 years if need be," he said. "I think the Dehcho First Nations would support us in that."

- with files from John Curran