Residents in aboriginal communities along the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline route will vote today on general principles for an access and benefits agreement.

Those people living in the Sahtu region communities of Deline, Tulita, Norman Wells and Fort Good Hope met yesterday to discuss a tentative deal struck by negotiators.

The agreement is a positive sign during a crucial week for the $7-billion pipeline.

By tomorrow, the National Energy Board expects to hear back from the pipeline's proponents -- Imperial, Shell Canada Ltd., ConocoPhillips and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group -- as to whether or not they expect to have access and benefits agreements in place.

If approved, the Sahtu will be the first region in the Northwest Territories to sign on, but Nellie Cournoyea -- of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp. in the northwest corner of the N.W.T. -- said her group is also close to reaching a deal.

Imperial spokesman Pius Rolheiser said Imperial doesn't necessarily need "signed, sealed and delivered agreements."

But he said the company does need to see a path forward.

Robert Reid, president of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, was tightlipped following a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, but said "all of those deals are progressing" between Imperial Oil and the aboriginal groups.
Reid called it "a pivotal week," although he said he doesn't think the NEB's deadline of tomorrow is a drop-dead date for the Mackenzie Valley project.

"If the date is missed by a few days, I don't think that'll be an issue ... (but) it can't be a month's delay," he said, adding a month of negotiations wrangling could set the project back as much as a year.

"There's a 60-day notice period by the regulators to allow hearings to commence. We're just that tight in the schedule that it would mean slippage of a full year in the project, so that's the consequence."

Reid also said it's important that the Mackenzie Valley pipeline proceed before the proposed Alaska pipeline.

"Once Alaska's in the ground ... they'll expand Alaska every time rather than build Mackenzie, so it's very important, if you want to access this Canadian resource, that Mackenzie go first," he said.

This week's meetings are the first good news pipeline proponents have had since the federal government announced last summer it would kick in $500 million over 10 years to help cope with the social stresses of pipeline development.

IAN WILSON - Calgary Sun