Environmentalists upset governments reject almost all northern pipeline advice

Environmentalists are angry that Ottawa and the Northwest Territories have rejected almost all the advice in a lengthy and expensive report on the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline.

The Sierra Club says the decision from the two governments to accept only 10 out of 176 recommendations is an insult to those who worked on the report.

Additional Excerpt:

“Years of research, public hearings, studies and community engagement are being thrown in the wind,” Sheila Muxlow, director of the Sierra Club's Prairie chapter, said in a release Tuesday. “This is an insult to the effort and expertise that went into the Joint Review Panel over the past five years."

The panel, which considered the environmental and social impacts of the proposed $16-billion pipeline, held hearings in tiny communities up and down the Mackenzie River Valley, as well as in cities including Yellowknife and Edmonton. It delivered its long-awaited report earlier this year.