Yellowknife (July 28/06) - Following the Joint Review Panel's four month hearing extension, there's a "high likelihood" of a year-long delay for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

This according to Heather Marreck of Imperial Oil Resources Ventures Limited, her statement part of a response to questioning during the tolls and tariffs portion of National Energy Board hearings in Yellowknife Tuesday.

Speaking from Council of the Federation meetings in St. John's Newfoundland, Premier Joe Handley expressed his concern with the review panel extension.

"It's disappointing that they couldn't see fit to complete it in the time frame they had," said the premier who added there was always "hiccups" in projects this big.

"It will go ahead or not go ahead based on the economics and every time you stretch things out like this, you risk the possibilities of other factors coming into play but let's not make it more complicated."

Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce President Sean MacGillivray took the doom and gloom reaction into overdrive calling the extension "intolerable."

"While we respect the JRP's wish to be thorough, the decision to extend hearings has the potential to kill the project," he said. "In which case these further consultations will have been pointless."

According to energy board spokesperson Andrew Cameron, energy board hearings will wrap up as planned in December. However, the energy board must wait for the review panel's report before making its recommendation on the pipeline to federal cabinet. Born through the federal government's 1959 energy act, the quasi-judicial board's decisions have always been rubber-stamped.

While the energy board hearings deal primarily with engineering, logistical and economic issues - including tolls and tariffs - for the $7.5 billion project, the role of the review panel is to examine the socio-economic and environmental impacts.

Even Inuvialuit Regional Corporation Chair Nellie Cournoyea waded into the fray, criticizing the panel for not providing the justification to extend its hearing schedule. "While the original (review panel) schedule may have been ambitious, reports on the public hearings to date have not provided the impression that there is a clear requirement for an extension of this magnitude," she said in a prepared statement.

As the three anchor fields for the project are located within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, the corporation and its beneficiaries have the most to lose if the project doesn't go ahead.