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Home , Great Bear River, Mackenzie Highway, Mackenzie River

THE REPORT OF THE MACKENZIE VALLEY PIPELINE INQUIRY 7 The Mackenzie Valley The Mackenzie Valley 77

The Pipeline Guidelines envisage two energy The Region . Along this Arctic Gas and corridors in ’s Northwest: one would Foothills propose to move pipe, material, cross the Northern , and the other would The not only defines the equipment and supplies to their stockpile and run the length of the Mackenzie Valley. I have Mackenzie Valley, it dominates the entire construction sites. And along this Valley it is recommended that no pipeline be built and no Canadian Northwest. The called the river proposed to establish an energy corridor. corridor be established across the Northern Deh-cho, the Big River. Alexander Mackenzie The Mackenzie Valley region that would be Yukon. In this chapter, I will address the called it the Great River, by which name it was affected by the pipeline and oil and gas activities Mackenzie Valley corridor. known until descended this river includes not only the Valley itself but also the The Mackenzie Valley is a transportation during his first overland expedition, 1819- basins of and . route that has seen several decades of industrial 1822. Since then, we have known it as the Despite the diversity of this large region, the development. No major wildlife population is Mackenzie River. It is the longest river system continuity and definition given the region by the threatened by a pipeline along the Mackenzie in Canada, one of the ten longest in the river make it a logical entity to deal with as a Valley, and no major wilderness areas would be world, and one of the last great rivers that is whole. Because it is a natural travel corridor, it violated by it – but that is not to say that a not polluted. The Mackenzie now sees many competing uses by wildlife, pipeline would have no impact. Clearly there encompasses nearly one-fifth of our country, traditional activities of native peoples, and the will be impacts, but they will be superimposed taking in northwest , the advance of industrial development. on those that have already occurred in the northern half of , most of northern When you fly along the Mackenzie Valley, region, and in many respects they can be , the eastern Yukon and, of you have the impression of immense distances ameliorated. So, setting aside the very course, all of the western part of the Northwest and great isolation, but in some senses this important social and economic issues and the Territories. Included within this great drainage impression is misleading. It to the overarching question of native claims, all of system are the Peace, Athabasca and Liard assumption that the land is virtually empty and which I shall treat in subsequent chapters, there Rivers, as well as the Finlay, Parsnip, Nahanni, that its capacity to absorb impact is limitless. As is no compelling environmental reason why a Great Bear, Arctic Red and Peel Rivers. It each activity advances – seismic exploration, corridor to bring oil and gas from the drains the of the North: Great Slave drilling, roads, highways, mines and pipelines – Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea could not be Lake and Great Bear Lake, both of which are we tend to overlook their cumulative effects on established along the Valley. However, to keep bigger than Lake Ontario. Within the the land, the wildlife and the native people. the environmental impact of a pipeline to an alone, the Mackenzie acceptable level, its construction and operation River and its drain an area of some The People and the Land should proceed only under careful planning and one-half million square miles an area larger strict regulation. The corridor should be than the Province of Ontario. Native land use within the Mackenzie Valley developed only on the basis of a sensible and Historically, the Valley has provided a home focuses on its renewable resources: moose, comprehensive plan that accounts for and and subsistence for the native people. It provided caribou, furbearers, fish and birds. resolves the many land use conflicts that are the main transportation route and resources upon Environmental impacts will, therefore, bear apparent in the region even today. which the northern fur trade was built, and today especially on them. It is only within it is a vital link between the people and the comparatively recent years that the incremental communities of the region. The river is also the changes to the environment caused by successive route over which machinery and equipment are stages of industrial development have built up sent to the base camps and the drilling rigs of the to a level that is obvious to the people who oil companies active in the Mackenzie Delta and live in the Mackenzie Valley. The land has 78 NORTHERN FRONTIER, NORTHERN HOMELAND - Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry - Vol. 1 changed. A cut-line here and there, a drilling site, there has been extensive industrial activity: forms of development on the environment and a road or highway where none existed before, now all of the lands around the communities at peoples of the region. The consequences of these airstrips, and more and more aircraft flying Fort Norman and Brackett Lake are held under varied developments and changes on the way of overhead. These things together are effecting a petroleum exploration permit. The major life of the native people in the region was cumulative environmental transformation. permit holders include Aquitaine, Texaco, described by Chief Daniel Sonfrere of : The initial incursions of white people into the Decalta Group, Shell and ; some ... after the white man came, well things look dif- Mackenzie Valley were limited both in number 25 wildcat wells have been drilled within 60 ferent, everything’s changing now. I’m going to and extent. Engaged in the fur trade, they lived miles of Fort Norman, the nearest one only tell you a few things about that.... close to the major river routes and were eight miles east of the settlement. Look at it today. If we try to go in the bush and dependent for their living on the native people’s The oil companies have carried out kill something, it’s pretty hard for us to find annual harvest of furs. The pattern of that widespread seismic exploration in the area for [anything] because there are too many roads many years, and there are seismic trails going different directions. There’s too many peo- relationship has survived for more than a century. ple around. It’s pretty hard for us to kill any- But it began to change in the early 1900s when everywhere. For example, Aquitaine has carried thing. We have to go quite a ways to get what we geological parties began to explore the Valley out 350 miles of seismic exploration on a block want off our land. Yes, even some people [are] and surrounding area. Oil was found at Norman of land covering about 1,000 square miles. complaining about the fish they’re catching in Wells in 1920; and deposits were There has been exploration for other minerals, this river because everytime they go and pull discovered in the region in the 1930s. Slowly the too. Manalta Coal Limited of Calgary have their net, when they want to have a feed of fish it activities of industrial man moved farther from exploration licenses on land covering some 240 always taste of fuel.... [We] have to go in the bush and do the hunting, [we] got to go quite a the main river transportation routes, away from square miles east and southeast of Fort Norman. ways and got to get out quite a distance before the trading posts, into lands that had been the They have put down about 30 shallow drill holes [we] can get anything [we] want. [C588ff.] exclusive domain of the native people. and found coal seams 20 feet thick at shallow In recent years, many hitherto remote areas depths. The same block of land is also held have come under intensive use. Consider what under a petroleum exploration permit. Environmental Concerns is happening in an area that is still regarded as There is barge traffic on the river in summer. relatively untouched, the Fort Norman-Fort The alignment will pass Many parts of the Mackenzie Valley terrain Franklin region. The native people have always along the north side of the village of Fort are sensitive to disturbance. The region is used the lands and waters of this area to hunt, Norman, and its right-of-way is already partly distinguished by its silty, clayey trap and fish. The main area of long-term use cleared. The CN telephone land-line and a soils that are vulnerable to dramatic thermal by the people of Fort Norman extends inland run the length of the Valley. The degradation, particularly along the many river past Brackett (Willow) Lake at least 250 miles feasibility of a hydro-electric development on valleys and slopes of the region. These concerns from Fort Norman, and occasionally travel the has been studied. There is are of major importance because the north- takes the people another 150 miles. The people extensive air traffic in the area, which rises and south direction of the corridor cuts across the of Fort Franklin still use all of the lands around falls with exploration and development. A rash many east-west valleys and slopes that Great Bear Lake. of activity by government and industry has converge on the Mackenzie River. There has been a fur trading post at or anticipated construction of the pipeline. Although the valleys crossed by the near Fort Norman for more than 150 years. The government regards the proposed corridor may constitute only a small Half a century ago, industrial development pipeline as the key element of a transportation proportion of the total landscape, they are the began in a limited way with the discovery of and energy corridor along the Mackenzie locations of disproportionately high land use oil at , and a refinery has been Valley. The pipeline issue has focused and are of particular environmental, aesthetic there since the 1920s. But, more recently, attention on the cumulative effects of other and recreational values. They define essential Bear Rock behind Fort Norman. (L. Smith) Stockpile site for petroleum exploration, Mackenzie River. (GSC-A. Heginbottom) . (C. & M. Hampson) Islands of the Mackenzie River near Norman Wells. (GSC-A. Heginbottom)

The Mackenzie Valley 79 fish and mammal habitat and the vegetation America’s great migratory bird flyways. Mills the Franklin Mountains. In recent decades, a along them is more varied and abundant than Lake near the head of the river, the islands and number of factors, especially the widespread elsewhere. Valleys have always been and still sandbars from Camsell Bend to Arctic Red use of pesticides, have combined to reduce are the preferred areas for many native people. River, and particularly the islands near Norman greatly the abundance of the peregrine falcon in These factors give the location of pipeline Wells and Little Chicago are heavily used by most areas of . The plight of this compressor stations unusual importance, migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. These bird is described by George Finney and Virginia because many of the compressor station islands are an important link in waterfowl life Lang in the Biological Field Program Report: complexes would be located adjacent to the cycles. River bars and flood plains, with their 1975 prepared for Foothills: valleys that are the foci of the regional dynamic nature and early succession stage The population is at a dangerously low level and ecosystem. A gas pipeline would be a dynamic vegetation, are heavily used by migrating snow there is no indication that recovery is imminent. Due to the sensitivity of the peregrine population, linear element across the northern landscape, geese and swans in spring, because this is the developers have to face the fact that the destruc- with nodes of great activity at compressor first habitat available to them. The birds arrive tion of a single nest site or interference with nest- stations at 50-mile intervals. These nodes would immediately after break-up, landing on the ing in a single year is a serious and unacceptable extend to include wharf sites, helipads, airfields exposed portions of the islands to feed and rest. impact. These constraints apply to no other birds and borrow pits. They generally lie at right Pair-bonding takes place during this part of species regularly nesting along the proposed angles to the pipeline right-of-way and corridor. their migration, and the pairs continue north to pipeline corridor. [Vol. IV of IV, Section 4, p. 32] The immediate impact of industrial their nesting grounds in the Delta and beyond. I am of the opinion that we can avoid development would not necessarily be dramatic With so short a season, they have no time to disturbance to the raptors by establishing in a region like the Mackenzie Valley, where the waste. Disturbance must be kept to a minimum. suitable buffer zones between their nesting sites influence of the white man has been evident for Large numbers of ducks and some Canada and industrial activities. I shall deal with this many decades. Wildlife populations are affected geese, loons and shorebirds nest in the subject in Volume Two. by the cumulative influence of such factors as Mackenzie Valley. The most important nesting, weather, disease, predators and habitat moulting and staging areas for waterfowl along Mammals conditions. But wildlife populations inevitably the Mackenzie Valley north of Great Slave Lake No populations of caribou in the Mackenzie decrease as industrial activity takes over larger are the Ramparts River, Mackay Creek, Valley are directly threatened by a pipeline. The Brackett Lake, Mills Lake and Beaver Lake. As and larger portions of the landscape. This Bathurst herd, which ranges from the north and in the Delta and the Northern Yukon, the birds process is now well underway in the Mackenzie east shores of Great Slave Lake to the south are susceptible to disturbance during these Valley, and it will accelerate as industrial shore of Great Bear Lake, is used by hunters critical stages in their life, but the consequences development proceeds. Let me illustrate this from , Detah, Rae, point by referring briefly to some of the major probably would not be as great because the populations are not as concentrated. and Rae Lakes. The people of , wildlife species in the region. The raptors that nest in the Mackenzie Fort Franklin and Colville Lake rely mainly on Valley, Mackenzie Delta and Northern Yukon the Bluenose herd, which ranges from Great Birds are significant portions of the surviving North Bear Lake north to the tree line. Some woodland Important areas for birds in the Mackenzie American populations of these birds, caribou are taken throughout the Valley. Valley are chiefly of two types: those that especially of the peregrine falcon and the The calving grounds of the Bluenose and provide staging and nesting sites for waterfowl gyrfalcon. There are nesting sites for the the Bathurst herds are far away from the and those that are suitable sites for raptors, such peregrine falcon, an endangered species, and impact area, and their main populations lie as falcons, eagles and hawks. other raptors all along the proposed corridor outside the corridor. Nevertheless, even The Mackenzie Valley is one of North and, in particular, in the Campbell Hills and though industrial activity in the Mackenzie 80 NORTHERN FRONTIER, NORTHERN HOMELAND - Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry - Vol. 1

Valley does not threaten the caribou populations. Such a decline occurred following a severe environmental disruption has reduced populations, such activity will drive them World War I, when there was an influx of their numbers. farther from the Valley itself. Father Jean trappers, traders and prospectors into the Of the many species of fish in the region, some Amourous told us, when the Inquiry visited Rae Mackenzie Valley. While not immediately are spring spawners, others are fall spawners and Lakes, that this has already occurred to some sensitive to encroachment on its habitat, one species, the burbot, is a winter spawner. extent: successive disturbances will cause moose to These species – grayling, yellow walleye, ... it’s a fact that development means, in this move away. The effect is subtle and gradual. , longnose sucker, , country, the stop of development by traditional The furbearers of the Mackenzie Valley region, whitefish, cisco, inconnu, trout, goldeye, ways. For instance, when development took like the other mammals, are threatened by stickleback and others – have different place with the mining, building of roads, cat successive developments that affect their sensitivities to disturbance depending on their roads, cat trains, on the lakes, at about that time habitat and tend to push them farther and farther life cycles and biological traits. The arctic the caribou stopped migrating right through the away from the corridor. Localized depletions of grayling, for example, have a complex seasonal Pre-Cambrian Shield and stopped going ... beaver, lynx, marten and muskrat have been felt across to the sedimentary grounds, limestone migration. Usually they spawn over gravel in directly by many of the trappers who spoke to country, like Lac la Martre, and all the way down small, relatively clear tributaries during spring to the other end of Lac la Martre, in 1956. No the Inquiry. Joe Martin told the Inquiry about conditions near Colville Lake: break-up; then, it seems, the mature fish migrate caribou there for the last 20 years. And that was to other feeding areas in the Mackenzie system, about the time that the uranium mines grew up in There’s parts around here, some areas where it the country, right on the caribou migrating roads. used to be really good for trapping marten and and they overwinter in lakes or in the mainstream stuff like that. Since explorations, all the seismic channels. Nursery areas for fry and immature ... it was about that time that on an expedition to trails ... it’s not so easy to go trapping and catch fish are generally in clear, swiftly flowing the barren land hunting caribou, we couldn’t find fur anymore. You have to really work for it, any caribou that had fallen, but we found plenty because it’s really changed. Not so many furs smaller tributaries. Changes in habitat, water of moose that had run away from this part of the like there used to be before. quality (particularly by siltation of the clear country in between the Pre-Cambrian Shield and streams), toxic spills and obstruction of channels the limestone country, because of the industrial [Horseshoe Lake] where [I] was trapping last winter, there’s a lot of seismic cut lines around could adversely affect species like the grayling. activity. And those moose have been pushed back there. It used to be real good trapping area by the noise to more isolated parts of the country. We have limited knowledge of the population around there ... [but] just even cut lines like that distribution and dynamics of fish in the And people here are witness to the fact that when can disturb the land, and the fur is not the same, Mackenzie drainage system. Jeff Stein of the the winter road is open, caribou don’t come and the wildlife is not the same. [C8338ff.] across it. And many times, certainly three or four Department of Fisheries told the Inquiry: times since the winter road is open to haul out to Fish Certainly we can identify the more significant populations and in some cases provide very spe- the South the minerals from around Great Bear The Mackenzie River is more productive and Lake shores, it has spread the caribou pasturing cific measures for their protection. But for the in the country in between here and Great Bear has more fish species than either the Porcu- vast majority of streams, especially small Lake, and after the operation is going on of haul- pine River or the north slope drainage of the drainages, data are generally limited, thus requir- ing that mineral ore outside, then you don’t see Yukon. Most fish in the Mackenzie Valley ing extrapolation from more intensively studied the caribou alongside that road, or very few. have specific migration routes and limited and hopefully similar watersheds. [F15723] [C8301ff.] spawning, overwintering, nursery and feed- It is essential, therefore, that inventories and Moose, like caribou, are a heavily used ing areas. Suitable water quality and food research on fisheries keep pace with industrial resource in the Mackenzie Valley. They sources are obviously necessary. These habitats development in the Valley. Even so, we know range widely over most types of habitat in and conditions are particularly important that certain measures will have to be summer and early spring. Hunting was the because of the generally limited ability of employed to protect fish habitat. These main cause for the decline in the moose northern fish populations to recover after measures should include requirements for Beaver. (NFB-Cesar) Bundling dry fish near Fort Good Hope. (R. Fumoleau) Moose. (A. Carmichael)

The Mackenzie Valley 81 the design and construction of culverts, dykes, Corridor Development a railhead, a road terminus, and with extensive coffer dams, ice bridges, handling of toxic trans-shipment facilities, and , substances, siltation, water withdrawal and which is on the Mackenzie Highway, will both waste disposal. Measures such as these will be The Pipeline Project experience a boom. dealt with in Volume Two. As the map of the front of this report shows, the There will be compressor stations at about Development of an energy corridor could routes proposed by both Arctic Gas and 50-mile intervals along the pipeline. Arctic Gas propose to have 18 in the Valley, and Foothills interfere with the Mackenzie Valley fisheries by Foothills along the Mackenzie Valley are very disturbance of the fishing sites or by direct will have 17; with each station there will be a similar. Both routes run south from the Delta disruption of fishing. The domestic fishery has host of other developments. Let me describe along the east side of the Mackenzie River. traditionally been very important throughout briefly what is planned for just one of the 18 Starting from the Delta, they pass close to the area as a source of protein. If the fisheries compressor station sites that Arctic Gas , east of Travaillant Lake and then are to be retained, both the fish and the fishing propose, the one at Thunder River. approach the Mackenzie River near Thunder sites must be protected. The permanent facilities will comprise the River. From here to Fort Simpson, the compressor station itself, an airstrip (one of ten Recreation Mackenzie River and the routes are generally airstrips that Arctic Gas propose to build in the parallel, except south of Fort Good Hope, Valley) seven miles of all-weather gravel road, In this report, I have said little about outdoor where the pipeline routes cut through a gap in and a wharf. Temporary facilities will include a recreation. It may seem to have little relevance the Norman Range, and north of Fort Simpson, construction camp to house an 800-man pipeline to a pipeline or an energy corridor, but where the Arctic Gas route crosses the Ebbutt construction crew and, once the pipe is laid, the recreation and tourism are increasing in the Hills and the Foothills route skirts west of the 200-man compressor station construction crew, Valley, and in future they will be of greater Ebbutt Hills. Both routes cross the Mackenzie a material stockpile site, two or three gravel pits importance. Therefore, industrial development east of its confluence with the Liard (east of and many miles of snow roads. The construction should be designed to limit adverse impacts on Fort Simpson), and then continue southeast of this complex will require over two million areas of recreational value. Such areas should overland, to the Northwest Territories-Alberta cubic yards of gravel and other borrow be identified now, before further development border, just east of the Alberta-British material. The permanent compressor station reduces the options that are available. Columbia boundary. will have between six and ten large steel Studies by Parks Canada have demonstrated The pipeline will stretch 800 miles from the buildings, which will house 30,000-horsepower that the Mackenzie River, one of the few major Delta to the Alberta border. But the project will turbine compressors, 17,000-horsepower rivers still free of dams, may be considered as refrigeration equipment, propane condensers to not be just a line of pipe buried in a clearing an Historic Waterway. Some of its tributaries dispose of the waste heat from the refrigeration through the bush; its effects will be felt in could qualify as Wild Rivers and sites such as units, a workshop, garage, storage, control distance well beyond the right-of-way and in Bear Rock and the Upper Ramparts have been room, communications equipment, office area identified for consideration as National time far longer than the two winter seasons of and living quarters for operation and Landmarks. There are many other areas of pipelaying. All the material, supplies and maintenance staff. In addition, there will be archaeological and historical interest in the equipment will have to be shipped down the river outside storage areas for repair and maintenance Valley. Collectively such areas constitute a rich to the construction sites during the summer. The material and vehicles, extra pipe, fuel and natural and cultural heritage worthy of capacity of the fleet of tugs and barges on the propane, a flare stack and an incinerator, a protection. Mackenzie River will have to be doubled. The sewage lagoon and a communications dish to Great Slave Lake railway and the Mackenzie hook into the Anik Satellite. All this will Highway will be heavily used. Hay River, as require a fenced, gravelled pad about 1,000 82 NORTHERN FRONTIER, NORTHERN HOMELAND - Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry - Vol. 1 feet square. According to Carl Koskimaki, an associated facilities. Their concerns were related transmission lines, telecommunication facilities, engineer who gave evidence for Arctic Gas, the to the location of the pipeline near the etc. [p. 3] operating noise of the station turbines and at the communities themselves and in or near Most of these developments would be fence line of the station would be equivalent to traditional land use areas. Both routes come confined to a narrow strip of land on the east the noise level within 100 feet of an urban within two to five miles of Fort Good Hope, Fort side of the Mackenzie River along the same freeway in mid-morning. The material stockpile Norman, Norman Wells and Wrigley. In addition, general route as the proposed pipeline. The site at Thunder River will be at the compressor both companies will locate regional headquarters Pipeline Guidelines do not foresee a number of station site and, together with the wharf, it will be at Fort Simpson, Norman Wells and Inuvik. Both projects spread over a vast landscape. In many able to handle tens of thousands of tons of companies have responded to some of these parts of the Valley, topography alone would supplies, including 88 miles of pipe, which alone concerns by changing or suggesting changes in constrict these developments into quite limited will weigh about 85,000 tons. All this, including location. For instance, Arctic Gas have proposed areas because restrictions on the route of one both the permanent and temporary facilities, will to relocate wharves, stockpile sites, access roads project are often similar to those of another. For require the clearing of nearly 350 acres of land. and airfields. To expedite the shipment of example, the proposed Mackenzie Highway The pipeline companies told the Inquiry that material, they have also made plans to carry out alignment, the CN land-line right-of-way, and the choice of the east side of the Mackenzie a large part of their trans-shipment activities at a the winter road between Inuvik and Fort River for their pipeline and their selection of a new facility at Axe Point, downstream from Fort Simpson as well as the pipeline commonly lie route through this area were based on financial Providence. To date, such changes appear to within a zone only a mile or two wide, and they and engineering considerations. The shortest have been introduced unilaterally; there has been pass through Gibson Gap, which is only one- distance, with due regard to major terrain no apparent progress towards a review process to half mile wide. features, such as mountain passes, river crossing resolve differences regarding the route of the Unlike the Northern Yukon, some of these sites and soil properties, defined the route in the pipeline and the location of its facilities. developments are already underway along the general sense. They took the proximity of Mackenzie Valley corridor. Others are pending, transportation facilities into account and as site- Other Developments and there may be others that we do not yet specific engineering, environmental and, to The proposed gas pipeline is neither the first foresee. The gas pipeline will accelerate these some degree, socio-economic information activities and accentuate environmental change. became available, they progressively refined the major venture, nor the final stage of corridor development in the Valley. But in many respects It will begin a new round of impacts that may routing and made some minor adjustments. seriously affect the landscape and its wildlife. Compressor stations were located at it is a threshold. The pipeline will stimulate oil hydraulically optimum points that were chosen and gas exploration throughout the Mackenzie for pipe and station size and design gas volumes, Valley, and further gas discoveries may well be Balancing Development with then adjusted slightly as required by made. Robert Blair, President of Foothills, geotechnical considerations. For engineering spoke at Colville Lake of the likelihood that a the Environment pipeline would connect the Tedji Lake reasons that involve the maintenance of The pipeline project has focused public hydraulic balance and throughput efficiency, the discoveries northwest of Colville Lake with the main pipeline. The Pipeline Guidelines, which attention on the need to resolve conflicts degree of flexibility in choosing compressor created by different demands on the station sites was said to be limited. envisage an oil pipeline and other transportation systems, refer to: environment. Dr. Ian McTaggart-Cowan of the People in all the communities along the Environment Protection Board summed this up: proposed route expressed to the Inquiry ... a transportation corridor that might include in the long run not only trunk pipelines, but ... there is the oft experienced human ten- concern over the location of the pipeline and its also a highway, a railroad, electric power dency to argue that, now that some tolerable The Ramparts along the Mackenzie River. (D. Gamble) Snow geese. (C. & M. Hampson) Great Bear River looking west towards Bear Rock. (GSC-A. Heginbottom)

The Mackenzie Valley 83

impact has been permitted, it becomes easier to points for terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems land and wildlife resources of the Mackenzie argue for each successive small increment – that are important for traditional pursuits of the Valley. This step is, after all, only good small change – each one on its own perhaps native people. These areas should be avoided by housekeeping, as the urgency of large-scale minor, but in the aggregate inducing serious impact. I have called this “destruction by industrial development wherever possible, and frontier development threatens to overwhelm insignificant increment.” This process requires any incursions that are permitted should be the sustaining natural values of one of Canada’s that proposals for initial incursions be viewed subjected to stringent assessments of impact greatest river valleys. most thoroughly to determine particularly that and to the special ameliorative measures that I This step cannot be taken unilaterally: there are the route designated for this project is the one shall specify for the gas pipeline in Volume too many interests involved – all of them least likely to be subjected to these incremental Two. legitimate. Industry, government and the local phenomena resulting from looping, from roads, people all acknowledge the need for a from railways, from oil pipelines, etc. We must recognize that land will become a scarce resource in the Mackenzie Valley. It will comprehensive plan. As a start, the location of the [The Environment Protection Board] urges very not be long before competition for land (and proposed pipeline route and the ancillary facilities strongly the preparation of a comprehensive land must be refined to avoid destruction of areas use plan for the Yukon Territory and the competition for access to the resources that land Mackenzie Valley area, taking into account the contains) will become much more intense than important to the native people and wildlife and environmental and social components. The cor- it is now. The wildlife species of the region have areas important for conservation and recreation. ridor concept makes this particularly important. definite requirements, and the native people A settlement of native claims is the point of [F6267] will continue to need extensive lands for their departure from which all other land uses, Comprehensive land use planning can purposes. Industrial developers will need land including major industrial uses, must be emerge only from a settlement of native claims. for their purposes, and yet other areas may be determined. A just settlement with the native However, on purely environmental grounds, designated in time for such purposes as people will not only give them the kind of protection they need to plan their own future, it there are several areas of land that warrant conservation and recreation. All of these uses will also involve them fully in planning the immediate protection. I recommend that will increasingly press against each other, and future of the Mackenzie Valley. If the valley sanctuaries be designated to protect migratory there will be conflict. environment is injured, they will be most waterfowl and falcons, and the sites that I In the Mackenzie Valley, a large number of affected. recommend have already been identified under events that affect the pattern and character of If we take a long view of corridor the International Biological Programme. They land use have already occurred, and more such development in the Mackenzie Valley and plan are the Campbell Hills-Dolomite Lake site, events may occur before a comprehensive plan accordingly, the various demands on land use in which is important to falcons, and the Willow of land use has been formulated and the region can be successfully reconciled. There Lake (Brackett Lake) and Mills Lake sites, implemented. Some things are now fixed. For will have to be some environmental impact and which are of great importance to migratory example, many of the communities and most some environmental change – it is unavoidable. waterfowl. Many islands in the Mackenzie industrial developments are located on the east But the existence of major wildlife populations River are also important to migratory side of the river. But we are still at a relatively would not be threatened, and no unique waterfowl, and, in time, some of them should be early stage of development. There is still time to wilderness areas would be violated. The designated as bird sanctuaries. consider a variety of options. It is not good challenge we all face in the Mackenzie Valley is Many tributaries that feed into the enough simply to promise ourselves that we can to maintain its environmental values with the Mackenzie River also warrant some degree of serve a variety of divergent uses equally and same resolve that we plan the development of special protection from industrial impacts. simultaneously. energy and transportation systems. I think, so These valleys, where the permafrost terrain Measures must be instituted to limit the far as environmental considerations are and slopes are most sensitive, are the focal impact of industrial development on the concerned, this challenge can be met. 84 NORTHERN FRONTIER, NORTHERN HOMELAND - Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry - Vol. 1

Mackenzie River and Norman Range. (Arctic Gas)

Hide being stretched and dried. (R. Fumoleau)