Governments Brush Aside Mackenzie Valley Recommendations

OTTAWA—The federal and North West Territory governments are disrespecting the Mackenzie Valley Joint Review Panel process by discounting the majority of the recommendations needed to sustainably develop the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, said Sierra Club Canada today. 

Of the 115 recommendations aimed towards the federal and Northwest Territories governments, only 10 of the recommendations were fully accepted in an interim report released Monday.  The federally appointed Joint Review Panel (JRP) developed a total of 176 recommendations to mitigate environmental damage and socio-economic effects of building and operating the proposed 1,200 kilometre natural gas pipeline.

“Years of research, public hearings, studies and community engagement is being thrown in the wind,” said Sheila Muxlow, Sierra Club Prairie Chapter Director.  “This is an insult to the effort and expertise that went into the Joint Review Panel over the past five years.“

Although the federal and N.W.T. governments accepted the intent of 77 of the recommendations, they said they could not accept the recommendations as written by the JRP.  The Governments also determined that many of the recommendations were outside the scope of the JRP’s mandate.  According to the governments: a number of recommendations fetter the discretion of future decision-makers; several recommendations constrain future development in the North; a large number of the recommendations would require financial resources to implement and though the governments generally agree with several other recommendations, they cannot be implemented within the specified timeframe and thus cannot be accepted as written. (1)  

“Sierra Club Canada will not support the pipeline going ahead if it risks another ecological disaster simply because the government refuses to take the time and spend the money to develop energy projects sustainably,” said John Bennett, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada.

The National Energy Board will release a final decision on the pipeline in the fall of 2010.

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1.  http://www.ec.gc.ca/bpgm-mgpo/default.asp?lang=En&n=EFF97846-1

Contact:
Michael Bernard
Director of Media Relations
Sierra Club Canada
michaelb@sierraclub.ca
(o) 613.241.4611 x230
(c) 613.302.9933
Toll free: 1.888.810.4204