The thing about natural gas is that it will stay in the ground until someone pumps it out.

Anyone who wants it will have to pay our price.

That's the ace up the NWT's sleeve as the rhetoric and demands over the $7 billion Mackenzie Gas Project hit new heights.

There has been tension between First Nations and companies proposing the pipeline almost as long as the project has been on the table.

We've seen fights over winter work, access agreements and who pays for social problems.

It culminated in the producers cancelling preparatory work and delaying a decision on public hearings until November.

Now, there are rumours Imperial Oil wants $2 billion in financial guarantees from the federal government. That prompted K'Asho Got'ine Dene negotiator and former NWT premier Stephen Kakfwi to predict doom for the pipeline.

Then last Thursday, a letter from the Dehgah Alliance Society outlined a request for a property tax worth between $17 million and $20 million a year to Deh Cho communities. No one should be surprised by any of the demands.

Everyone wants a piece of this very big pie.

The company wants profit for its shareholders; First Nations want a financial benefit from a pipe built across their land; government wants tax and royalty revenue to offset the $500 million already promised the North to pay for social needs.

And it all comes down to the bottom line: the best deal for the North is not necessarily the best deal for Imperial and its partners.

This project must stand on its own merits, without artificial taxpayer support. That includes dealing fairly with the landowners over whose land the pipe will run.

And why not go shopping for another company willing to build the pipeline who understands Northern economics and needs.

Playing hardball with Imperial will be difficult for Inuvik and the Inuvialuit who've got so much at stake in seeing this project come to fruition in the very near future.

Unfortunately, taking anything less than a strong position will leave them and the entire North with empty holes in the ground and little else.

If this price is too high today, it might not be a few years from now when North America is even more thirsty for our energy.

NNSL Editorial