ANALYSIS

Greg Weston

Mackenzie gas pipeline to get cabinet OK (CBC News)

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 | 10:52 PM ET

By Greg Weston CBC News

The pipeline's proposed route would run along the Mackenzie River Valley and through a number of remote Northwest Territories communities to northern Alberta. (Rick Bowmer/Associated Press)

After almost 40 years of conflict and controversy, the massive Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline project is expected to get final government approval as early as next week with one major caveat — no federal subsidies.

Senior government sources tell CBC News the federal cabinet will give a green light to the controversial $16-billion pipeline, possibly at its next meeting.

While government approval would cap four decades of studies and delays since the Mackenzie project was first proposed, the pipeline could remain a pipe dream for years to come.

Even with final federal approvals, the big issue now is whether the project still makes economic sense without hefty public subsidies the Conservative government is apparently unwilling to provide.

The 1,200-kilometre pipeline from the Beaufort Sea to northern Alberta is being proposed by a private consortium of corporations and aboriginal groups, headed by Imperial Oil.

Proponents of the project have long argued that governments should be paying partners, since the pipeline would provide a huge economic boost to the North, and create thousands of jobs both in the Arctic and among Canadian suppliers elsewhere across the country.

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