The proposed Mackenzie Gas Project took another step towards reality Monday following the release of the governments’ final response to the Joint Review Panel’s report.
In their response, the federal government and the Government of the Northwest Territories announced they are willing to accept the “vast majority” of recommendations laid out in the JRP report.
The report, Foundation for a Sustainable Future, was released in December 2009 and made 176 recommendations to minimize the socio-economic and environmental impacts of the proposed 1,196 kilometre-long pipeline. The two governments said they are willing to “accept” or “accept the intent” of 88 of the 115 JRP recommendations directed towards them. Of the 27 recommendations rejected by the governments, 20 were determined to be “outside the scope” of the JRP’s mandate.

Both governments said they are confident that the implementation of the recommendations will eliminate or mitigate any adverse impacts associated with the project.
“Should the MGP proceed, it will do so within a responsible environmental stewardship framework,” federal Environment Minister John Baird said in a release Monday.
The JRP’s public hearings on the project began on Feb. 14, 2006 and concluded on Nov. 29, 2007, after 115 days of hearings held in 26 northern communities and Edmonton, Alberta.
“An unprecedented level of public consultation was undertaken prior to finalizing the governments’ response which highlights our commitment to implementing the appropriate mitigation measures to protect the environment and address the social, cultural and economic impacts associated with the proposed project,” Baird said. After receiving the JRP’s comments on Oct. 4, the two governments modified their response to clarify “misunderstandings” about finance issues, recommendations that would handcuff the decisions of future regulators, recommendations outside of the JRP’s mandate, and restrictions on future development.
Michael Miltenberger, the NWT minister responsible for the MGP, said he is confident the revised report meets the intent of the JRP.
“We’ve improved the wording. We’ve taken out the ambiguities for the most part. We’ve clarified a lot of the concerns that were raised in terms of how things were said – the grey areas,” Miltenberger said from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is attending Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy. “The final product is an improvement and good enough that both governments have signed it off.”
Kevin O’Reilly, a member of Yellowknife-based social justice group Alternatives North, said he was disappointed but not surprised with the governments’ final response. O’Reilly said the response rejects some of the JRP’s “most important” recommendations without actually saying so.
““The Joint Review Panel spent a lot of time and energy trying to address those concerns by proposing a sustainability framework, and then applying it to what they heard,” he said. “The governments have just clearly rejected that.”
Miltenberger said the response is now in the hands of the National Energy Board (NEB).
Sara Kiley, a communications officer with the NEB, said a number of mechanical and administrative issues will be dealt with over the coming weeks before the NEB releases its decision.
“We’re looking at about one month from today,” she confirmed Monday afternoon.

Northwest Territories Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment Bob McLeod was in Montreal, Quebec last week to discuss the NWT’s energy potential with 4,600 energy leaders from across the world.
McLeod highlighted the NWT’s wealth of hydrocarbons during the 2010 World Energy Congress, which ran from Sept. 12 to 16. McLeod, who had the opportunity to make two presentations, said the meetings went “really well.” McLeod was part of a panel that discussed hydrocarbons in the Arctic and the need to ensure blowout prevention technologies and oil spill remediation technologies could work in the North.

“My main message there was the fact that we have oil and gas, (and) very significant oil and gas potential as well,” he said. “And that we needed to have federal investment in infrastructure, and also that we needed to have in place environmental measures that would give us the comfort to proceed with drilling in the offshore.”
The Congress, which occurs every three years, gave McLeod an opportunity to promote the need for the Mackenzie Gas Project and Taltson Hydro Expansion, as well as the importance of federal investment in accomplishing such projects.
“We need federal investment in the people and the communities,” he said. “The best way to promote Arctic sovereignty was to do that.”
There was no discussion of the stalemate between the federal government and the Joint Review Panel and its implications on when the National Energy Board renders its decision on the MGP, McLeod said.
“We did have a discussion on the regulatory regime and a need to streamline it,” he said. “Not to take any shortcuts but so that we can deal on a more efficient basis.”
Before the congress concluded McLeod had an opportunity to meet with federal Environment and Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis, as well as learn about new instream hydro technology that could have applications in the NWT. McLeod attended meetings on the technology and also had an opportunity to see it at work in the St. Lawrence River. While McLeod said the technology, which uses turbines similar in shape to jet engines, could be used in many of the NWT’s 33 communities, he said officials still have to examine how ice conditions, ice movement, and ice scour will affect the technology’s performance.
“Every one of them is on a body of water – either on a river or a lake or on the ocean,” he said of the NWT’s communities.
“We think that wherever there’s fast-moving water, there’s a possibility of using this technology.”

Bob McLeod, Northwest Territories Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, said the government’s support of the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project remains high, even as optimism in the project has waned elsewhere.

McLeod was in Calgary, Alberta last week for an oil and gas reception and met
with a number of industry players during the two-day visit, including Imperial Oil, Aboriginal Pipeline Group, BP, Conoco Phillips and MGM Energy. With the Joint Review Panel’s oft-delayed report on the proposed pipeline expected by the end of the month, McLeod said he used the trip to reinforce the importance of the project not only to the Northwest Territories, southern provinces like Alberta, Canada and the United States.
“We see the pipeline project as being in the national interests,” he told The Hub on Thursday. “It’s a priority for our government – we’re still a strong supporter and we also wanted it to reinforce the need for the construction to go ahead. And what some of the consequences might be if it didn’t.”
During an evening reception on Dec. 15, McLeod used the Town of Inuvik as an example in a speech.
“It is a town where equipment is idle and silent. It is a town where hotel rooms are empty and coffee shops are closing. It is a town where too many men and women sit idle, too, waiting for something to happen, waiting for the boom to come,” he said during the speech. “The boom was supposed to come with the construction of the Mackenzie Gas Project. But now, on the eve of a new year, optimism in the MGP has waned … but I am here to tell you that while some may have lost their faith in the project, the Government of the Northwest Territories has not.”
McLeod said the future of the proposed pipeline rests on support from the federal government. Jim Prentice, the federal minister responsible for the pipeline, said in January that the government was willing to provide the pipeline proponents with financial support for infrastructure and other associated costs.
During a recent meeting with ministers in Ottawa, McLeod said he was questioned whether the MGP was even needed, due to the shale gas deposits discovered in the United States. McLeod responded by reminding the ministers of the “chorus of northern support” behind the MGP.
With the Government of the United States providing $60 billion in “unequivocal” support for proposed gas pipelines in Alaska, McLeod said the federal government could help level the playing field by stepping up with support for the $16.2-billion MGP, which would create 30,000 person-years of employment, while adding $67.5 billion to the NWT’s GDP, and $1.6 in new tax revenue.
“They think it’s a very good project, they like the jobs and they like the benefits to Alaska and the United States. And, most importantly, they like the long-term supply of natural gas,” McLeod stated. “We said, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if Canada and the Prime Minister’s Office would provide a similar level of unequivocal support.’”
With the JRP report set to be released on Dec. 31, McLeod said the next critical deadline is April, when the pipeline’s proponents would be expected to appear for any “b” hearings into the project. Prentice had originally proposed to have the financial support deal in place before the JRP released their report – something that is now unlikely, McLeod said.
“He’s preoccupied with Copenhagen so it’s very unlikely he’ll have the fiscal arrangements in place before Dec. 31,” McLeod said of Prentice. “In an ideal world we were truly and hopefully would have the fiscal arrangements in place by now.”
In October, a report in The National Post suggested the federal government was set to yank its support for the pipeline. McLeod said he hopes the government is not letting the project slip away.
“I guess they want to make sure that they’ll spend the money in the right places, where they see it,” he said. “We think they should be spending it to make sure the Mackenzie Pipeline goes ahead.”