Fort Simpson (Sep 08/06) - The future of the Dehgah Alliance Society could be decided this week.

Deh Cho leaders are planning to meet on Sept. 8 to discuss strategies for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline access and benefits agreements including what to do with the Dehgah Alliance Society (DAS).

The society was formed on Feb. 3, 2005 out of the former Deh Cho Pipeline Working Group. Its goal was to gather information for making access and benefits agreements.

Pehdzeh Ki First Nation in Wrigley withdrew from the society in December leaving behind the Liidlii Kue First Nation, Jean Marie River, Kakisa and the Fort Simpson Metis Nation.

The withdrawal prompted Imperial Oil to stop negotiations on access and benefits in May until it was clear who belonged to the DAS and its counterpart, the East Dehcho Alliance.

Imperial spokesperson Pius Rolheiser said the company would prefer to negotiate with all the communities through a society.

Keyna Norwegian, president of the DAS, said before making further plans, the society is waiting for a decision from the aboriginal leadership about how the communities will be represented. The society's current funding from the Pipeline Readiness Office will run out this month.

"I'm going to recommend we move forward with the Dehgah Alliance," said Norwegian. If the DAS is dropped all the work it's accomplished will be lost, she said.

Norwegian said the society has built good working relationships between the membership communities. The society is also familiar with the parties involved in the access and benefits talks.

Norwegian also feels that the communities that will be directly impacted by the pipeline should have a majority say on how the access and benefits agreements develop. Ways can be found to accommodate the groups that are not members of the DAS, she said.

The Dehgah Alliance Society will be one topic of conversation at the leadership meeting, Grand Chief Herb Norwegian confirmed.

Leaders made the suggestion that a meeting needed to be held to talk about the pipeline strategy and to share information, the grand chief said.

If the DAS is given the signal to move forward, the first goal will be to get back to the negotiations table, said Keyna Norwegian.

"With the timeline that we have we need to start sitting down and have some serious negotiations happening," said Norwegian.