NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
This week, News/North canvasses opinions of two people - Kurt Wainman, owner of Northwind Industries in Inuvik, and Pius Rolheiser, Imperial Oil's leading communications person on the Mackenzie Gas Project - asking them to place themselves in one of two camps.

In the first camp are those who remain convinced that, no matter the challenges, the Mackenzie Gas Project will see the light of the day.

In the second camp are those who are a little more skeptical of the project's chances and wonder if indeed Northerners will ever see the day when natural gas from the Mackenzie Delta flows south.

Kurt Wainman: I put myself in 'Yes, it's going to happen; it's just a matter of when.' That's the whole thing, right? When all the red tape's cut, I guess. When it's settled who's doing what, who's OK-ing what.

In the meantime, I'm not going to sit around waiting for it.

News/North: It's going to take three years for Imperial Oil and the other proponents to decide whether to construct. What is your company doing in the meantime?

KW: To keep ourselves busy we're bidding on all the contracts that we can. My company, myself, we've ramped up quite a bit for this oil and gas industry. We were working towards a pipeline 10 years ago. Today ... it's sure taking its sweet time.

Now we're working on any kind of nice projects we can get our hands on to stay afloat, concentrate on surviving until (the pipeline) does come.

We still do the ice roads. We do (part of) the Mackenzie Delta ice road.. We still do highway maintenance...

N/N: Has it been frustrating seeing the project you've ramped up for stalled for so long?

KW: It's very frustrating because I had 100 employees at one time, sometimes 130, and now I'm down to maybe 20. I feel like I owe responsibility to a bunch of people.

All of a sudden everything's good, people are doing well, making money, they're training and learning everything (about) all the new equipment ... they're upgrading their safety training.

(Now, with the pipeline still not approved) a lot of my employees feel like they've been cheated.

Ninety-nine per cent of the people say it's the pipeline, but then one per cent says, 'Well, our boss could have done better.' It's unfortunate.

Pius Rolheiser: We're in the camp that we're committed to the project, and we're working on making a successful path forward. And we very much remain of the view that the Mackenzie Gas Project remains a significant, vital supply source for the Norther American market, and a supply source that the North American market will need and support.

NN: Would that position remain the same if, say, the Alaska Pipeline Project were to come online before the Mackenzie Gas Project?

Would there be room enough for both suppliers of natural gas in the market?

Pr: I'd rather not answer the hypothetical questions about "what if?"But we continue to be of the belief that the Northern America market will ultimately need and support gas from a variety of sources, including Mackenzie and Alaska Gas.

We continue to believe, as we have from the outset, that the project can be developed to the benefit of all stakeholders, including governments, including resources companies, and particularly including the people of the North.

That's been our view from the outset.

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