| Summary: | This presentation will address the central question - can we balance sustainability and economic growth in the Northwest Territories (NWT) within the framework of capitalist development? The proposed Mackenzie Gas Project will have enormous implications for the people and land in the NWT; thus, it is important to understand the process and politics behind its environmental assessment. With a price tag of $7 billion and the largest “development” in the history of Canada’s north (Wright Mansell Research Limited) – it would fragment intact boreal forests along the Mackenzie River, Canada’s wildest big river, and damage habitat for species such as woodland caribou and grizzly bear (Wildlife Management Advisory Council). The proposed project will double the NWT’s greenhouse gas emissions (Pembina Institute), and it is slated to fuel further development of Alberta’s tar sands, which produces the most damaging type of oil for the global atmosphere, through another pipeline to Fort McMurray (First Energy Capital Corporation). Other questions to be explored include how the oil and gas lobby influences the policymaking of the Government of the Northwest Territories and Aboriginal self-governments and organizations; is the Joint Review Panel independently reviewing the environmental, social and cultural impacts of the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project, according to its mandate, and, what are the opportunities for and challenges facing environmental non-governmental organizations and citizen resistance to the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project?
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