CBC: The tide seems to be turning in favour of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. After months of pessimism now optimism seems to be reigning as more and more people in positions of power are coming forward to say it looks like the huge project will go ahead. Julie Green reports.

GREEN: The head of Imperial Oil’s parent company said he expected the $7 billion pipeline to go forward. Rex Tillerson of Exxon Mobile said he thought there had been good progress on the outstanding issues since the project stalled in April. Today the president of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, which as a one third share of the project, was sounding up beat while talking to a conference in Yellowknife. Bob Reid said negotiations are well underway with aboriginal organizations.

REID: And they’ve really heated up over this last 10 days, and I’m very optimistic that within the next week or 10 days we will see some access and benefits agreements in place.

GREEN: Reid says discussions continue with the federal government on another of the outstanding issues; what producers are going to pay for the gas. Meanwhile, the producers have filed applications for the hundreds of land use permits and water licences they need for the project. All of this is giving the territorial government a boost. The Minister responsible for the pipeline, Brendan Bell, believes the Mackenzie gas project is likely to trump the Alaska Highway pipeline.

BELL: If you look at it we’re into the regulatory review and the Alaska project, although it’s going to happen, doesn’t have a project definition yet. So if you just look at the levels of the two projects the Mackenzie is fairly advanced at this point.

GREEN: Whether the Mackenzie gas project will stay in the lead will become clear later this month when producers announce whether they’re ready for public hearings. Julie Green, CBC News, Yellowknife.

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