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The Joint Review Panel released its report on the potential environmental and socio-economic impacts of the Mackenzie Gas Project Wednesday. The panel members completed their report in Yellowknife, where this photo was taken in early November. From left, Barry Greenland, Percy Hardisty, Gina Dolphus, Rowland Harrison, Peter J. Usher, Tyson Pertschy and Robert Hornal. - photo courtesy of Northern Gas Project Secretariat

Report favours pipeline
Citing 176 recommendations, Joint Review Panel releases long-overdue report on Mackenzie Gas Project


The Review Panel's report is available online at: http://www.ngps.nt.ca/registryDetail_e.asp

Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 30, 2009

INUVIK - More than four years after its first targeted release date, the Joint Review Panel released its report on the potential environmental and socio-economic impacts of the Mackenzie Gas Project - a positive review titled "Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future."

Panel Budget

  • Salaries (chair and panel members): $4.47 million ($650 per day for the chair; $500 per day for other members)
  • Support staff salaries: $2.56 million
  • Consultants: $4.37 million
  • Travel: $1.82 million
  • Administration (office expenses, production of report, advertising, translation): $900,000
  • Hearings (aircraft rental, room rental, simultaneous translation, telecommunications): $4.56 million
  • Total: $18.68 million

Panel members

Robert Hornal, chair
  • Hornal, who served as director of the NWT Northern Affairs Program during a time of significant oil and gas exploration in the Arctic Islands, Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea (from 1974 to 1981), is currently principal in the Vancouver-based firm Robert Hornal and Associates Ltd. The firm specializes in resource management, aboriginal, environmental and socio-economic issues.
Gina Dolphus
  • Dolphus was the first female mayor of Deline and has served as a trustee for the Inuvik Regional Health Board and acting vice-chairperson for the Sahtu Divisional Board of Education.
Barry Greenland
  • Greenland acted as sub-chief of the Inuvik Native Band for 10 years. He also served as director of the Gwich'in Tribal Council Board for two years.
Percy Hardisty
  • Hardisty was twice elected chief of the Pehdzeh Ki First Nation in Wrigley.
Rowland Harrison
  • Harrison, a member of the National Energy Board since 1997, also served as director general with the Canada Oil and Gas Lands Administration. This body was responsible for negotiating exploration agreements for frontier lands, including the Beaufort Sea and the Mackenzie Delta.
Tyson Pertschy
  • Pertschy, who has a diploma in Natural Resources from Arctic College in Fort Smith, has worked as a federal fishery officer for the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's Western Arctic region.
Peter J. Usher
  • Usher, a geographer, lived in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region for several years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His Ottawa-based independent consultancy focuses on social and environmental impact assessment, land use and resource management, and aboriginal claims.

TIMELINE

August 2004
The Minister of the Environment, in agreement with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board and the Inuvialuit Game Council, appoints the seven-member Joint Review Panel (JRP). The panel is charged with evaluating the potential impacts of the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project on the environment and lives of the people in the project area. Under the terms of reference outlined in "An Agreement for an Environmental Impact Review of the Mackenzie Gas Project," the panel was tasked with holding its hearings and releasing its report within 10 months.
March 2007
The estimated cost of the pipeline, originally set at $7.5 billion, climbs to $16.2 billion, according to proponents.
November 2007
The JRP's public hearings conclude. After 115 hearing days, the panel receives more than 5,000 written submissions and thousands of recommendations on the pipeline, more than it expected.
January 2008
Lead proponent Imperial Oil cuts five positions at its Mackenzie Gas Project (MGP) offices in Inuvik, Norman Wells and Fort Simpson.
December 2008
The panel says its report will come out December 2009, citing the wealth of submissions and written filings it has received.
April 2009
CEAA estimates the operating budget of the JRP has ballooned to $18.7 million from $6.3 million.
June 2009
The United States government agrees to increase the loan guarantees to TransCanada Corporation and ExxonMobil, the proponents of the Alaska Pipeline Project, to $30 billion.
June 2009
Imperial Oil says the original timeline for the pipeline ­ which estimated the pipeline could begin production in 2014 ­ is now "uncertain" in the wake of regulatory delays
September 2009
Blaming the delays to the pipeline, MGM Energy, the last company to drill in the Mackenzie Delta region, confirms it will not mount any projects next year, meaning there will be no oil exploration during the winter of 2010.
October 2009
Citing unnamed sources, the National Post claims a federal assistance package for the pipeline has been rejected by the federal cabinet, prompting many to wonder about the Government of Canada's confidence in the project.
December 2009
During a visit with pipeline proponents in Calgary, Bob McLeod, minister of industry, tourism and investment, calls on the feds to offer an indication of fiscal support to the pipeline before the January 2010 federal budget announcement.
December 30, 2009
The JRP's report is released.
April 2010
Regulatory hearings under the National Energy Board (NEB) ­ tasked with assessing the technical and economic dimensions of the pipeline ­ are set to resume.

"The panel is confident that the project as filed, if built and operated with full implementation of the panel's recommendations, would deliver valuable and lasting overall benefits, and avoid significant adverse environmental impacts," reads the preface of the 679-page report, released online on the JRP's website.

Since the panel was appointed in August 2004, the chair and the six other members were paid a total of approximately $4.47 million, with the chair making $650 per day and the other members $500 per day, according to Lucille Jamault, manager of communications for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

The cumulative budget for the JRP stands at $18.7 million, up from its original budget $6.3 million, she added.

In all, the panel made 176 recommendations for the implementation of the pipeline, including a call for funding from the federal government.

The Joint Review Panel was appointed in August 2004 by the Minister of Environment in partnership with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Review Board and the Inuvialuit Game Council.

According to the terms of agreement outlined in the Joint Review Panel Agreement, the panel was to hold its hearings and release its report within 10 months.

But the wealth of material generated by the panel's work prompted the members ­ who were working full-time on the report ­ to delay the release of the report several times. This invited much scrutiny from businesses in the Mackenzie Delta and proponents of the pipeline, who consist of Imperial Oil Resources Ventures Ltd., the Aboriginal Pipline Group, Shell Canada Ltd., ConocoPhillips Canada Ltd. and Exxon Mobil Canada.

"I think it would be safe to say that the review of the project generated more interest and more submissions from approximately 100 interveners than anyone had anticipated, not just the panel," said Brian Chambers, executive director for the Northern Gas Project Secretariat.

"The review process resulted in the necessity to look at a large volume of material ... more than 5,000 written submissions. There were thousands of recommendations."

Chambers added that panel members won't be responding to media enquiries.

"They have indicated that they want the report to speak for them ­ and speak for itself," said Chambers. "I think the panel is satisfied that they've met their obligations to complete a thorough and comprehensive review of the project."

Initial reactions to the report's release and the panel's enthusiasm for the pipeline were positive.

"It's important to read the details of the conditions set out, but initially I would say I'm very pleased with the news," said Fred Carmichael, chair of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group and a vocal critic of the JRP's delays in the past. "I think the heading of the report ­ 'Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future' ­ tells it all. It's needed."

"We're extremely pleased to hear the panel supports the project and we will be reviewing the recommendations," stated Ann Marie Tout, president of the NWT Chamber of Commerce, via e-mail.

According to the panel, the cumulative impacts of the MGP and similar developments that may follow was an issue of "heated debate and widespread public concern" during the panel's review.

The pipeline and its associated facilities, if fully built as applied for, "would have a capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) but the available gas supply (0.83 Bcf/d) would provide a throughput of only approximately 70 per cent of that capacity.

"Further developments to produce additional volumes of gas up to the capacity of the MGP at 1.2 Bcf/d had not been proposed at the close of the panel's record," the report states.

The panel also added it is "crucial" that governments have programs in place to respond to the effects of the development before the pipeline is built.

The report comes two weeks after Bob McLeod, minister of industry, tourism and investment, visited project proponents in Calgary to spur the feds to indicate their fiscal support for the project before the announcement of the federal budget in January.

With the JRP report now in hand, the National Energy Board (NEB) ­ which was tasked with looking at the technical aspects and economic feasibility of the project ­ will holds its final hearing in April.

The board will then consult several federal departments, including Fisheries and Oceans, plus the cabinet, before issuing its final decision on the pipeline, possibly by September.

"It's a positive step," said Pius Rolheiser, spokesperson for Imperial Oil, of the JRP report. "But it bears mentioning that, while it's an encouraging step, it's only one in a number of steps that remain."

Rolheiser added the proponents have three weeks to respond to the panel's recommendations.

With the recent discovery of shale gas deposits in North America, depressed natural gas prices and the promise of U.S. federal loans to proponents of the Alaska Pipeline Project, and now the support of the JRP, the focus in the new year will likely be on the economic viability of the Mackenzie pipeline.

In October, the National Post, citing unnamed sources, claimed a proposed fiscal package for the pipeline was rejected by federal cabinet.