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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The federal government will not release the dollar amount of its financial commitment to the Mackenzie Valley gas project until a deal is finalized according to a response to questions posed by MP Dennis Bevington.

On Jan. 19, Bevington asked federal government to specify its commitment to the pipeline project. The Western Arctic MP's main concern was how much the Harper government was planning to spend on the project. Environment Canada responded saying "the details of the financial offer presented to the project's proponents ... have not been made public as they are subject to Cabinet confidence."

Frederic Baril, press secretary for Environment Minister Jim Prentice, responded to questions via e-mail and said "The reason why the government's offer is not public at this moment is because we can't negotiate a business deal in public."

Baril did say the offer includes a contribution to infrastructure and pre-construction costs and a sharing of risks and returns. Baril said they wouldn't speculate on the risk of the investment.

Derek Lindsay, Mayor of Inuvik, said it's about time the federal government started to make a commitment to the project, but isn't surprised by the fact it's being kept secret until the deal is reached.

"Regardless of who is in power, it's typical procedure for them," he said. "They keep things secret and bring it to the House and get chastised for it. Then it's business as usual."

Lindsay said he hopes the commitment of money to the project will not just be a smoke and mirrors investment.

"There is an awful lot of infrastructure that needs to be built in the communities along the pipeline," he said, adding the highway is a necessary piece of the overall picture. "If the pipeline is built and the highway isn't, there is something wrong there."

Bevington said the Minister's approach to planning the future of the NWT is fundamentally wrong and demanded that Prentice be more open with what he is doing.

"Dealing with taxpayers money and they consider it to be secret and I find that to be odd and not correct," he said. "It's an important project and to think he is going to hide what he is doing for an oil company in this day in age is just ludicrous. He should be open and honest with us about what he is going to do."

"If they are simply putting in temporary infrastructure for a company, instead of thinking for a plan for a road link up the valley, I think that's wrong. Public government has a role to ensure developments match up to the public requirements as well."

Premier Floyd Roland met with Bevington last week to discuss issues surrounding the North, particularly the Mackenzie highway and Bevington's plan for an amendment to the NWT Act to transfer control of road construction to the NWT.

Roland said the meeting made him more comfortable with the idea of amending the NWT Act, but said he still had concerns about funding.

"The thing that would move us ahead through this turbulent time would be an investment," he said, adding the authority for new roads on its own doesn't stabilize the situation. "In a time of tight fiscal framework, getting that authority and not having the revenues is not necessarily a win-win situation."

Roland said they've heard the positive language used by Ottawa regarding strengthening Northern sovereignty and economic development, but said their needs to be major improvements on the relationship they have with the North.

"If they're going to talk about a vision for the North they need to be talking the leadership here, whether it's through the GNWT or the regional leadership process," he said. "We're ready to do things up in the North and we need to start expressing a can-do attitude when it comes to Ottawa."

Bevington said the potential for cost saving and infrastructure for future projects, like the pipeline, should be enticing the Harper government to push ahead with this project.

"The fact you have better transportation will reduce the cost of doing all that work, more taxes and royalties to Canada and the NWT," he said. "There is a straightforward economic case to be made to Canadians that it will benefit everyone."