Mackenzie pipeline talks should be open: panel

A regulatory body for the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline says the federal government is not being transparent about the project.

The Joint Review Panel says the federal government has asked its members to enter secret consultations about the government's draft response to the panel's own recommendations on the proposed 1,200-kilometre pipeline through the Northwest Territories.

The federally appointed panel reviewed the potential environmental and socio-economic impacts of the proposed pipeline.

Following five years of review and consultations with concerned northerners and groups, the panel approved the project in December, on the condition that its 176 recommendations are followed.

But in a letter dated Mondayto Industry Canada, obtained by CBC News, panel chairman Robert Hornal said it would not "engage in a 'consult to modify' or 'clarification' process that is based on a confidential document," referring to the federal government's draft response to the recommendations.

"In the panel's view, to do so would be fundamental breach of the basic principles that the panel's review process is to be open and transparent and that the panel is to be accountable to the public at large and in particular the parties to its review," Hornal wrote in the letter.

The Joint Review Panel would only review the federal government's draft response if it is on the public record, Hornal wrote.

Environment Canada to respond

Officials with Industry Canada told CBC News on Tuesday that it's up to another federal department, Environment Canada, to respond to the concerns raised by the panel. Environment Canada is expected to respond on Wednesday.

"I'm surprised that the government would really try to pull this fast one and try to do it secretly," said Kevin O'Reilly, a member of the Yellowknife-based social justice group Alternatives North.

"I'm hoping that they'll actually make it public, how they intend to respond, so we can understand what's happened with the recommendations and what people have said," he added. "That's, I think, only a reasonable thing to expect from this process at this point."

O'Reilly, who had taken part in the Joint Review Panel's process as an intervener, said the federal government will eventually make public its response to the panel's recommendations.

"But surely to goodness, we want to know how the Joint Review Panel itself would intend to respond to whatever the government is going to do," O'Reilly said.

"They seem to want to keep it all quiet and secret, and that's just completely inappropriate. It's not the way we do things up here."

The Mackenzie Valleypipeline proposal is backed by a consortium led by Imperial Oil Ltd., and includes ExxonMobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

The National Energy Board, a federal regulator,is currently reviewing the proposal. It is expected to announce this month whether the project will be approved.