On July 31,1981 the federal cabinet approved the Norman Wells Pipeline
and Expansion Project (NW Project). The project consisted of a tenfold
expansion to the existing oilfield at Norman Wells, N.W.T., and the construction
of an 870 km pipeline to Zama, Alberta.
The approval was subject to a formal delay to allow "time for effective
and meaningful planning" for the implementation of special management
measures and benefit packages. Construction commenced January 1983 and the
project became operational in April 1985.
Although the project did not represent a major undertaking by industry
standards, it was significant for the north because it was the first major
hydrocarbon production and transportation project to be completed in the
Northwest Territories. In addition, the project involved a number of unique
impact management structures in order to coordinate government and industry's
activities and incorporate native concerns. The approach, if successfully
implemented, would represent an important step towards recognizing native
concerns in project management.
As a result of the new impact management structures, the NW Project has
been referred to by the federal government and industry as a "model" for future
northern development projects. On the other hand, native organizations viewed
the project as a 'test case' that failed since all the conditions to their approval were not fully met. This inconsistency highlights the importance of clarifying
which structures were successful for future northern megaprojects.
This thesis focuses on one of the management structures unique to the
NW Project, the Project Coordinating Committee (PCC). The PCC was
established "to provide a forum for formal project update, reporting,
communication and coordination of activities". The Committee had
representatives from the federal government, the two proponents, the
Government of the Northwest Territories, the Dene Nation, and the Metis
Association.
The specific purpose of this thesis is to assess the performance of the PCC
using criteria derived from the literature on Planning Process and Citizen
Participation, Group Dynamics, and Environmental Dispute Resolution.
The results of this evaluation showed that the committee failed to satisfy
all the performance criteria. However, at the root of the problem were the
politics associated with the approval of the project, and in particular, the fact that
the native land claims issue had not been resolved.
Even in the absence of negotiated powers, the Dene and Metis had
expected to actively participate in the regulation and management of the NW
Project. When these powers were divorced from the processes the Dene and
Metis were to be involved in, the Dene and Metis boycotted them.
In addition to politics, there were also fundamental structural and
operational deficiencies with the PCC which were detrimental to its
performance. On the basis of this analysis, an improved committee framework
for future projects is proposed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/3210 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Wilson, Jennifer Sharon |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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