Review Panel blesses Mackenzie Gas Pipeline

Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future
Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project
December 2009

In the Panel’s view, the Mackenzie Gas Project and the associated Northwest Alberta Facilities would provide the foundation for a sustainable northern future.

All documents are available at the CEAA Registry

CONCLUSION

The Panel is confident in its assessment of the impacts of the Project as Filed and its likely contribution to sustainability. Because of the lack of or unreliability of information about future developments, particularly such developments as would be required to support an increase of throughput on the MVP beyond 1.2 Bcf/d, the Panel has made a number of recommendations specifically directed towards anticipating and allowing for appropriate mitigation of any adverse impacts of those developments. With the full implementation of these recommendations, governments and regulatory authorities responsible for reviewing and approving proposals for future developments would be better informed and would be equipped to ensure that appropriate and effective mitigation measures were in place before such developments were authorized to proceed.

The Panel acknowledges the uncertainty that is inherent in predicting the future and has approached the challenge that this presents as an opportunity/risk matrix. Accordingly, the Panel has given careful attention to means of anticipating and managing cumulative impacts and ensuring a positive legacy from the Project, possible expansions and other future developments. The Panel is confident that, with appropriate policy and regulatory initiatives and responses to manage future developments built on the implementation of the Panel’s recommendations, the MGP, and future developments that might follow from the Project, could proceed in an acceptable manner.

Overall, subject to the full implementation of the following recommendations, the Panel has concluded that the adverse impacts of the Mackenzie Gas Project and the Northwest Alberta Facilities would not likely be significant and that the Project and those Facilities would likely make a positive contribution towards a sustainable northern future.

In the Panel’s view, the Mackenzie Gas Project and the associated Northwest Alberta Facilities would provide the foundation for a sustainable northern future. The challenge to all will be to build on that foundation.

Executive Summary