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The Mackenzie Valley Review Board says it needs more time to decide whether an environmental assessment of Imperial Oil’s Norman Wells facility should go ahead.
The Sahtu Secretariat, which represents Sahtu Dene and Métis, referred Imperial’s Norman Wells operations to environmental assessment in part on the grounds that the ecosystem, politics and socio-economic circumstances in which the facility operates had changed since it was last licensed.
The review board initially launched an assessment but Imperial then challenged that decision, asking the board to reverse it.
Various parties have since intervened, including other Indigenous governments and the GNWT. Arguments range from how treaty rights should be applied to how multiple phrases contained within federal legislation should be interpreted.
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In its initial timeline, the review board had said it would reach a decision by Friday.
However, late on Friday afternoon, the board said it “needs more time to make a fully informed, fair and reasoned decision.”
In a short update posted to its website, the board said there were “complex, consequential issues” involving “several substantive arguments that draw upon multiple provisions of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, the land claims upon which the act is based, and case law.”
The board now says it will publish a decision on or before December 3.
The outcome could have consequences specific to Imperial and Norman Wells, such as economic ramifications for the town and knock-on environmental effects, no matter which way the board rules.
There are also broader issues at play, such as how treaty rights and federal legislation are weighed in decisions like these, which could have a precedent-setting effect on how other regulators, companies and Indigenous governments approach similar scenarios in future.
