Yellowknife (Aug 21/06) - Stephen Harper wore a pro-development heart on his sleave Thursday night, pushing the Mackenzie Valley pipeline as the first block towards building a better future for the Northwest Territories.

"We must see the Mackenzie Gas Project come to fruition," he said during a speech in the legislative assembly's Great Hall, Thursday evening. "Without projects like this no amount of transfer payments will give the North the future it deserves."

Stephen Harper tries on a scarf, a gift from a wellwisher given during the prime minister's visit to the Legislative Assembly, Thursday evening. - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo

Harper committed to strengthening the territories' formula financing deal with Ottawa and tied negotiations for this with resource revenue sharing and devolution discussions.

The prime minister also took, what was interpreted by some in attendance, as a shot at the Deh Cho, the only aboriginal group on the pipeline corridor without a land claim or self-government agreement.

"The gas project is not a done deal," said Harper who cited the Alaska pipeline, rising costs of labour materials and, "those who focus on their own narrow concerns," as factors that could scuttle the $7.5 billion pipeline.

Since the project's conception, the Deh Cho have insisted the federal government address the First Nation group's outstanding land claim and self-government deals before it would give consent to the pipeline crossing its territory.

"I've taken some good shots before," said Herb Norwegian, Grand Chief of the Deh Cho First Nation, who was also in attendance at Harper's speech.

"We are of the view if Canada wants a pipeline, the Deh Cho process has to move forward and jurisdiction (over development) needs to be discussed," Norwegian went on. "Because if we're going to stand on the sidelines and become peasants in our own homes then I think we'll have something to say about it."

However, not all were disappointed with the prime minister's remarks. Harper drew applause on several occasions, in particular when he promised to liberate the North from, "paternalistic policies of the past."

Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington, who attended the Harper reception and speech, questioned what he thought was double speak.

"On the one hand he says he doesn't' want to be paternalistic while forcing development issues on us like they are a fait accompli," Bevington said. "That's not what we want. We want Northerners to get the best possible benefits from development and that means Northerners should have meaningful input into how this development takes place."

Bevington also called the prime minister's attempt to tie formula financing to devolution and revenue sharing as, "ridiculous."

Premier Joe Handley seemed pleased with Harper's view of the territories' future.

"He's making positive statements both privately and publicly and he's saying, 'look we're going to do something about (resource revenue sharing, devolution and the fiscal imbalance)," said the premier at a post reception press conference.

Speaking to the perceived roadblocks to development, Handley had this message.

"If we put a whole bunch of conditions on development in the North, whether it's by an aboriginal claimant group or its by us as a government, then we're not going to have an economy," he said. "(And) if we don't have enormous projects then we don't have little projects and we don't have the revenue and so there's no money to talk about."