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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Reaction to Neil McCrank's much-anticipated report on how to fix the NWT regulatory process has been mixed.

McCrank's report, originally scheduled for release in April, was unveiled in Yellowknife recently by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, who appointed McCrank to the task in November.

Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs recently unveiled the long-awaited report on streamlining the NWT regulatory system with author Neil McCrank, former chairman of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

The principal tenet of McCrank's report, entitled "Road to Improvement," is to make the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board (MVLWB) the over-arching authority in territorial land and water use review processes.

McCrank's central idea is put forth in two possible scenarios. The first option calls for removing the regional land and water boards altogether.

The second suggests relegating the boards to administrative bodies; their chief role would be to ensure land use plans are in place to help the MVLWB make decisions on potential developments.

To date, only the Gwich'in Settlement Area in the Mackenzie Valley has an approved land use plan.

The prescribed changes would be about "trying to ensure that there's local input, but at the right point," said McCrank. "The right point is at the land use planning stage, not at the stage where you're actually dealing with the significant application that involves engineering components, economic components. That should be handled by a professional regulatory body."

Strahl cautioned that McCrank's recommendations were just that - recommendations.

"This is not the final word, but I do want people to take this and use it as a discussion point because I think we need to move quickly to take advantage of what I think are great opportunities for Northerners," said Strahl.

Businesspeople and aboriginal groups should not take that to mean that the report calls for flat-out support of industry, he added.

"The (idea) is to make economic development easier - when it's decided to go ahead," he said.

The mayor of oil and gas hub Inuvik, Derek Lindsay - who expressed his disappointment in June when McCrank did not appear for a scheduled presentation at the Inuvik Petroleum Show - said he supported the removal of the regional boards.

"I think it would alleviate a lot of the problems and hurdles that oil and gas companies are faced with trying to move ahead," said Lindsay.

"It would be fair all around because everybody is getting treated by one board and would get the same treatment as everybody else."

From his experience, dealing with the MVLWB is a smooth process.

"Inuvik deals with the MVLWB for our own water licensing," he said. "They're a very affable board. We have no problem with them. They're open to suggestion. They're not one to say, 'You have to do this tomorrow or you're not getting your license.'"

Gary Bunio, vice-president of MGM Energy, cautioned against removing the boards altogether.

"I'm of the opinion that you can get most of McCrank's streamlining without having to reopen the land claims" to remove the boards, said Bunio. "I think that the communities have worked so long and hard to get the land claims completed."

The regional boards aren't to blame for the delays to the Mackenzie Valley Gas Project, whose ultimate approval MGM is banking on, added Bunio.

"If I look at what's holding up the pipeline, I don't see the regional land and water boards being an issue as much as the Joint Review Panel having usurped some of the rights of the community leaders to say, 'No, we want this to go ahead.'"

Paul Sullivan, chair of the Gwich'in Land and Water Board, agreed that removing the boards would be a painstaking process.

"I think it's going to be an involved process to make a change like that," said Sullivan. "You'd have to reopen the land claims agreements and get consent from the claimant groups. It would involve a long negotiation period with the Gwich'in Tribal Council.

"But whatever the (Gwich'in Council) makes a decision on, we'll live with that decision."