Philippe Morin
Northern News Services
Monday, February 12, 2007

OTTAWA - Former NWT premier Stephen Kakfwi has long argued Canada's natural resources are priceless.

But to help publicize this fact, the former NWT premier travelled to Ottawa and announced a fantastic-sounding estimate of the Mackenzie Valley's natural wealth: $500 billion.

It might sound hard to believe, but the claim is supported by ecological scientists of the Canadian Boreal Initiative.

According to "ecological economists" Mark Anielski and Sara Wilson, who co-authored the report, the Mackenzie Valley provides many services to Canadians such as water filtration, carbon absorption and pest control.

According to the report, this combined "value" would equal $500 billion in "societal economic value," which the authors said would represent more than 10 times the revenue created by extraction industries, such as oil and gas exploration in the region.

"This evaluation is not intended to undervalue the resource potential, but rather to temper its value in a broader sustainability context," it reads.

Chief Peter Ross of Tsiigehtchic, who lives on the banks of the Mackenzie River, said he respected Kakfwi and agreed conservation was important.

However, he chose not to comment on the study, or its claim the land is worth more undisturbed.

"I know the land is very important to us," he said. "But people here are always looking for jobs and if industry moves out of the region, it'll be difficult."

He added,"To have a self-government, you need a strong economic base."

In a press release issued by Boreal Initiative last year - when it estimated Canada's boreal forests to be worth 3.7 trillion, or roughly three times Canada's annual GDP - Kakfwi said the Boreal Initiative's estimates were meant to encourage people to think about the environment in new ways.

"Perhaps now with this report, it will be easier for us to begin to understand and have discussions about why we have to be responsible and not think only in terms of resource extraction and development but in terms of what damage and cost we inflict on ourselves and on the land's resources in our quest for progress and development," he was quoted as saying.

The Dehcho First Nations are praising the report as an endorsement of their Land Use Plan which encompasses 20 million hectares of the Mackenzie Watershed.

Under the plan, mineral and oil and gas development would be restricted on 69 per cent of Dehcho territory.

There are also proposed conservation zones, which would include permanent protection areas for half the planning area.

The balance of the land could be used for what the Dehcho describe as "well-regulated development."

Dehcho First Nations Grand Chief Herb Norwegian, in a press release, said the plan demonstrates the high value Dehcho communities place on the land.

The Canadian Boreal Initiative is an ecological organization, which works with First Nations, industry and other interested parties to argue the importance of Canada's boreal forest.