Mackenzie Gas Pipeline

1. Mackenzie Gas Pipeline The Policy Landscape and the Road Forward Tind Shepper Ryen

2. An Overview • Day 1 • Grab food and drink… • Introduction • The Berger Report • Today’s climate • Day 2 • Where to? Hurdles to the MGP. • Scandal, cooperation, regulation, and oversight.

3. Earth

4. Water

5. Air

6. Plants

7. Animals

8. People

9. Pipeline

10. Oil and Gas in the Arctic • Artic oil, gas, and pipelines all the rage: • First well in 1922, at Norman Wells. • WWII Canol pipeline: • Norman Wells to Whitehorse, Yukon. • Dismantled at end of war, but ROW still exists. • First Arctic Island oil well in 1961, Melville Island.

11. The Pace Quickens • Mackenzie Delta oil rig drilled in 1969. • Gas rig followed, 1970 at Parson’s Lake. • Large reserves in Prudhoe Bay found in 1967. • 1973, OPEC begins oil embargo. • March 21, 1974, Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry (Berger) established by act of Parliament.

12. An Exuberant Calm • 1977, Berger Inquiry ends. • Moratorium on Valley pipeline for 10 years. • 1980, National Energy Program • Write off >100% exploration costs. • 1984, Inuvialuit land claim settlement. • August 2000, Canadian government opens new lands for exploration, netting $400,000,000 in bids and $1 billion in work commitments. • Now over 1900 wells above 60° latitude.

13. Doomed to Repeat… • October, 2001, Memorandum of Understanding signed. • June 2003, Preliminary Information Package submitted to National Energy Board (NEB).

19. Berger Inquiry • Mackenzie Valley lands held by Crown, under Ministry of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. • Canadian government had a controlling interest in pipeline development. • Justice Thomas R. Berger appointed to lead inquiry. • Inquiry granted ability to compel testimony and documents. • 283 volumes, >40,000 pages, $5.3 million.

20. Participants • Canadian Arctic Gas Pipeline Limited • Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd. • Canadian Arctic Resources Committee • Environment Protection Board • Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories • Metis Association of the Northwest Territories • Inuit Tapirisat of Canada • Committee for Original Peoples Entitlement • Yukon Native Brotherhood • Northwest Territories Association of Municipalities • Commission Counsel

21. I discovered that people in the North have strong feelings about the pipeline and large-scale frontier development. I listened to a brief by northern businessmen in Yellowknife who favour a pipeline through the North. Later, in a native village far away, I heard virtually the whole community express vehement opposition to such a pipeline. Both were talking about the same pipeline; both were talking about the same region - but for one group it is a frontier, for the other a homeland. -- Thomas Berger, V1 Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Commission Report.

22. Why Berger? • Stakeholder participation. • Citizens, businessmen, etc. • Visited all 35 communities in the Mackenzie Valley. • Broad scope. • Investigated environmental, technical, social, cultural, and economic implications of pipelines. • Discovery process, and free flow of information. • Provides snapshot of conditions surrounding pipeline in the 70’s.

23. Sights and sounds

24. Main Conclusions: Environment • A pipeline would threaten Northern Yukon. • No energy corridor should be created in the Delta. • There were no major concerns in the Mackenzie Valley. • A number of parks and reserves should be created: • Northern Yukon, Porcupine Caribou. • Mackenzie Bay, White Whales. • Mackenzie Valley, bird sanctuaries. • ANWR

26. Main Conclusions: Economic • Large-scale projects based on non-renewables rarely provide long-term employment. • Natives will fill only unskilled and semi-skilled jobs during construction. • Development undermines self-employment through hunting, fishing, and trapping. • A pipeline may accentuate economic problems in the North. • The Northern economy will not decline if a pipeline is not built.

28. Main Conclusions: Social and Cultural • Native culture not taken seriously. • “…[S]ocial consequences of the pipeline will not only be serious- they will be devastating.” • Development must conform to the wishes of those who live there.

30. Main Conclusions: Land Claims • Land claims part of desire for self-determination and broader native rights. • Rapid industrialization will block settlement of native rights issues. • Special status should be granted native peoples.

31. Land Claims • Deh Cho • 40% of MGP runs through Deh Cho land. • A settlement in principal has been achieved. • Deh Cho are not part of the APG. • 6 other ongoing negotiations.

33. Lysyk In Brief • Highway Pipeline benefits will largely go outside of Yukon. • Large conditional support for pipeline if: • Native land claims are settled. • Pipeline company pays to mitigate negative consequences. • A planning and regulatory agency is needed. • The pipeline should be delayed four years. • Video Part 1

35. Next Time • Role of the Canadian government today. • Natural Gas Market. • Deh Cho obstacles. • Blanken Inquiry • Consensus building on MGP. Be prepared to talk! • The MPG will have what… • Environmental consequences? • Economic consequences? • Social consequences?

36. End Tind Shepper Ryen Doctoral Candidate, Environmental Studies University of Colorado, Boulder ryen@colorado.edu