Oil and gas and the Inuvialuitpeople of the Western Arctic

Leo-Paul DanaGSCM-Montpellier Business School, Montpellier, France, and

Aldene Meis-Mason and Robert B. AndersonUniversity of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand and

University of Regina, Regina, Canada

Abstract

Purpose – To learn how Inuvialuit people feel about the oil and gas activities on their land.

Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were administered to a stratified sample, onInuvialuit land. Participants included: Inuvialuit elders; entrepreneurs; public servants; employeesof the private sector; managers of oil companies; unemployed persons; housewives; the mayor ofInuvik; and the first aboriginal woman leader in Canada.

Findings – It was reported that oil and gas industry activities are having a positive impact on theregional economy, creating indirect as well as direct financial benefits for the Inuvialuit among others.However, some residents qualified their support saying that they are in favour of continued activityonly if benefits filter to them as opposed to being enjoyed only by oil companies and migrantemployees. Concern was also expressed for the environment and for the threat that developmentbrings to wildlife upon which people rely on as a food source.

Research limitations/implications – This study should have a longitudinal follow-up.

Practical implications – While oil and gas exploration and the building of a pipeline may haveeconomic advantages, this might have social, cultural and environment costs for the Inuvialuit.

Originality/value – The paper illustrates how oil and gas activities on Inuvialuit land willtransform the lives of these people.

Keywords Canada, Ethnic minorities, Energy sources, Economic development

Paper type Research paper

IntroductionWeyer (1931), and much later Birket-Smith (1959), and others identified differences amongInuit communities. West of Hudson Bay, economic life traditionally depended largely onthe migratory caribou herds of the Barren Grounds (Harper, 1955; Pike, 1892); hence the

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The Inuvialuit have been referred to by the Government of Canada as the Mackenzie Inuit.The authors thank the many residents of the Northwest Territories for accepting to be

interviewed for this paper. Special thanks to the following for spending much valuable timeassisting with this research: His Excellency Peter Clarkson, Mayor of Inuvik; the HonourableDr Nellie J. Cournoyea, Chief Executive Officer, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation; David Morrison,Director of Archaeology and History, Canadian Museum of Civilization; Norman B. Snow,Executive Director, Joint Secretariat, Inuvialuit Renewable Resource Committee; and AndrewApplejohn, Director of the Aurora Research Institute of Aurora College. Thanks also to ProfessorLudger Muller-Wille of the Department of Geography at McGill University, and to Peter J. Usher,member of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project, for their feedback on earlierversions of this paper. Funding was provided in part by Royal Dutch Shell International, and inpart by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Journal of Enterprising Communities:People and Places in the Global

EconomyVol. 2 No. 2, 2008

pp. 151-167q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

1750-6204DOI 10.1108/17506200810879970

term Caribou Eskimos (van Stone and Oswalt, 1960). In the absence of an abundant supplyof caribou, the Netsilik in Canada’s central archipelago (a relatively poorer habitat) reliedheavily on seal for their diet. In contrast, Labrador Inuit who traditionally lived largelyfrom the sea found themselves “highly vulnerable to the depredations of whalers andfishermen and became easy pray to disease, debauchery, and unprincipled traders”(Hughes, 1965, p. 13). Hughes (1965, p. 13) argued, “such diversification should beunderscored, for it may be important in outlining or influencing alternative responses tothe outside pressures and circumstances that have been coming into the fore.”

The Inuvialuit are the Inuit of Western Canada (Plate 1). They are not referred to asFirst Nations, and they have more in common with their relatives in Alaska than withother people of the Canadian Arctic. According to David Morrison, Director of

Plate 1.Inuvialuit woman withgrandson

Source: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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Archaeology and History, Canadian Museum of Civilization, social relations among theInuvialuit people have traditionally been less egalitarian than those of central ArcticInuit; Inuvialuit chiefs were traditionally rich and powerful men. Unlike the Inuit of theEastern Arctic, the Inuvialuit traditionally had access to wooden areas and resided inrelatively large and rich villages with permanent log-and-sod houses, fitted withcold-trap entrances and made comfortable with elevated sleeping platforms; these werespread from the Alaskan border to Amundsen Gulf, and the neighbouring islands, anarea bisected by the Mackenzie River – the second longest river in North America.

Beneath the Mackenzie River Delta lie large quantities of natural gas. TheMackenzie Gas Project has proposed to process this natural gas near Inuvik, and moveit to the market, via a pipeline system built along the Mackenzie Valley. What impactwill this have on the Inuvialuit people? The objective of our study was to learn howInuvialuit people feel about the oil and gas activities on their land.

HistoryThe first European in the region of Inuvik was Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in 1789. Theprimary school in Inuvik bears his name (Plate 2). During his visit, the area was largely ano-man’s land between the Inuvialuit people to the north and First Nations to the south.

Until the late nineteenth century, the Inuvialuit lived largely from caribou andwhales (Byers and Roberts, 1995). The year 1889 saw the first whaling ship enter theWestern Canadian Arctic. Many others followed and with them came Alaskan Inupiatbecause the whalers hired the latter to hunt caribou. The Inupiat used poison whentrapping and Inuvialuit resented them. The whalers took hundreds of whales and bythe early twentieth century, caribou became scarce.

Plate 2.Sir Alexander Mackenzie

SchoolSource: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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In response to the resulting food shortage, the Canadian Government had a herd ofreindeer imported from Alaska and encouraged the Inuvialuit to become reindeerherders, an activity practised among 20 ethnic minorities spread across the northerncircumpolar region (Turi, 2002). The herders used border collies to herd the reindeer. Abase for the industry was established at Reindeer Station, on the East Channel of theMackenzie River.

In 1953, it was decided to create the first planned community in the NorthwestTerritories, and this was also on the East Channel of the Mackenzie River. Thesettlement was designed before construction began. The site selected was called EastThree, later renamed New Aklavik. Construction commenced in 1955. To avoidconfusion with the existing settlement of Aklavik, in 1958, the name was changed toInuuvik, now known as Inuvik, “Place of Man” in Inuvialuktun[1]. Owing to permafrost,the buildings were constructed on pilings (Plate 3), and water and sewage pipes wereinstalled in insulated utilidors made of steel and aluminium (Plate 4), above the ground.The lines from the main utilidor to each house are called utilidettes (Plate 5).

Inuvialuit workers participated in the construction of Inuvik and for sometraditionally self-employed hunters and trappers, this was their first experience in thewage economy. The community’s Iglu Church (Plate 6) was completed in 1960. By1961, Inuvik had a population of 1,248, largely migrants from Aklavik, the populationof which dropped from 1,445 in 1956 to 559 in 1961 (Hughes, 1965).

In 1961, the Imperial Bank of Canada merged with the Commerce, creating theCanadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, with a branch in Inuvik (Plate 7). As explainedby Usher (2002, p. 18):

Plate 3.Built on pilings

Source: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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Wage employment was then only just becoming widespread because of the construction ofthe DEW line and the new town of Inuvik, and most Inuvialuit were only beginning to adjustto a settlement-based way of life. Most still relied on hunting, trapping, and fishing for themajor part of their livelihood.

Inuvik obtained village status in 1967. In 1969, onshore oil was discovered in theMackenzie River Delta near Tuktuuyaqtuuk. Inuvik was designated a town, in January1970. This was Canada’s only town north of the Arctic Circle.

A major gas find was made at Parsons Lake in 1970. Exploratory drilling for oil andgas in the Beaufort Sea and the Mackenzie River Delta expanded during the 1970s.This resulted in an unprecedented boom during the 1980s, stimulated by the rising oilprices and the National Energy Programme. In some years, investment exceeded$1 billion in the region. Usher (2002, p. 18) wrote, “Around 1970, the snowmobilereplaced the dog team as the primary method of winter transport. During the 1970s andearly 1980s, accelerated oil and gas exploration resulted in significant changes toemployment and income patterns.” In 1974, Arctic Gas (a consortium of oil companies)applied to build a pipeline to carry natural gas from the Mackenzie River Delta andPrudhoe Bay (Alaska) to markets across North America. Justice Thomas Berger wasappointed to lead an inquiry that would consider impacts of the proposal. Aboriginalpeople perceived the project as destroying their culture and leaving their people withfew economic benefits and many social costs. Their argument was that the projectwould introduce “massive development with incalculable and irreversible effects likethe settlement of the Prairies” (Usher, 1993, p. 106). The Inuvialuit people, dependenton caribou and other animals for much of their diet, strongly opposed the project. Longclearings (Plate 8) in a woody area, as a result of seismic lines and access roads or otherdevelopment, would make caribou more vulnerable to predators. Increased humanvehicle traffic would cause an increase in the number of caribou killed by vehicles andalso disturb migration. Proponents of the pipeline did not deny that the process wouldhave negative impacts on traditional aboriginal society. They claimed thatdevelopment simply “required the breakdown and eventual replacements ofwhatever social forms had existed before” (Usher, 1993, p. 104). The report of theinquiry was published as Berger (1977). Berger recommended a ten year delay in theproject. Berger (1986, pp. 179-80) explained:

Plate 4.Metal utilidor

Source: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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[. . .] the real danger of such projects lies not so much in their continued failure to provideongoing jobs for native people, but rather in the highly intrusive effects such projects mayhave on native society and the native economy, including among other things the failure torecognise and strengthen [. . .] the native economy and its associated values and preferencesso that its very foundations are not undermined.

However, the moratorium on building the pipeline did not apply to the explorationand drilling for oil and gas in the Beaufort Sea and the Mackenzie River Delta.

Plate 5.Utilidettes

Source: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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Plate 6.Iglu Church, Inuvik

Source: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

Plate 7.Canadian Imperial Bank of

Commerce, InuvikSource: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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A group of Inuvialuit, concerned that their people might not ever get a voice indeciding their future, established the Committee of Original People’s Entitlement;among the founders was Nellie J. Cournoyea, who later became Premier of theNorthwest Territories. In May 1977, the Committee of Original People’s Entitlementsubmitted a formal comprehensive land claim on behalf of approximately 4,500Inuvialuit living in six communities in and around the mouth of the Mackenzie River.

In 1979, the Dempster Highway (Plate 9) linked Inuvik with Canada’s motorwaynetwork. The highway was named in honour of William Dempster, of the Royal CanadianMounted Police. He used to travel along this way when the route was a dog sled trail.

Negotiations between the Inuvialuit and the federal government culminated in theInuvialuit Final Agreement in May 1984. Bone (2003) explained that the goal of theInuvialuit negotiators was to maintain their traditional way of life and, at the same time,venture into the market economy; this dual objective was achieved by the creation of theInuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Inuvialuit Game Council. The Inuvialuit weregiven legal title over 91,000 square kilometres of territory. This included thecommunities of Aklavik (literally meaning “place where one gets grizzly bear”); SachsHarbour (locally known as Ikaahuk, meaning “where one crosses”); Holman (also calledUluksaqtuuq, which means “place where one finds material to make ulus”); Paulatuuq(which means “place where one finds soot of coal”); Tuktuuyaqtuuk, meaning “placeresembling a caribou”); and for the purpose of the claim, Inuvik. The Inuvialuit RegionalCorporation was formed to receive the lands and financial compensation amounting to$169,500,000.

The Inuvialuit Development Corporation was created to address one of theobjectives of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, “to enable the Inuvialuit equal andmeaningful participation in the Western Arctic, circumpolar, and national economies.”

Plate 8.Pipeline clearing increasesvisibility, giving predatorsan advantage

Source: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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In pursuing this objective, the Inuvialuit Development Corporation declared it wouldbuild and protect a diversified asset base, generate financial returns, createemployment, and increase skills and development among the Inuvialuit. In 1985, theInuvialuit Development Corporation purchased the Northern Transportation CompanyLimited from the federal government. The Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation wascreated that year and grew steadily until it sold all its oil and gas assets except for oneproperty in Northwestern Alberta, making a profit of $29.5 million.

With oil and gas explorations, the population of Inuvik (Plate 10) peaked at 4,200 in1990. During the winter of 1999-2000, there was an upsurge in oil and gas activities.Since then, 70 per cent of all contracts have gone to Inuvialuit businesses. TheInuvialuit have developed partnerships and joint ventures with key companies fromSouthern Canada with international reputations that are involved in pipelineconstruction and servicing, as well as accommodations, construction, logistics, andtransport. While some Inuvialuit enterprises failed, most have been profitable. Usher(2002) reported that, though the Inuvialuit population had doubled from 1960 to 2000,the harvesting of wildlife for human consumption remained at levels of the 1960s witha value of $3.35 million.

The emergence of aboriginal business development based on financial capacityprovided by land claim settlements and by the decision of aboriginal leaders toparticipate in the market economy led to the formation, in 2000, of the AboriginalPipeline Group. This enterprise was created to represent interests of the aboriginalpeople of the Northwest Territories in the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline. TheAboriginal Pipeline Group became a full participant in the Mackenzie Gas Project inJune 2003. ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Imperial Oil, Shell and the Aboriginal PipelineGroup have since been partners in the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline.

Plate 9.Dempster highway

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In October 2004, Imperial Oil applied to the National Energy Board of Canada forapproval of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, one part of the Mackenzie Gas Projectincluding a pipeline from the Inuvik area to Norman Wells, 500 kilometer away. Theapplication was filed on behalf of Imperial Oil Resources Ventures Limited; theMackenzie Valley Aboriginal Pipeline Limited Partnership; ConocoPhillips Canada(North) Limited; Shell Canada Limited; and ExxonMobil Canada Properties.

In 2006, northerners, including Inuvialuit people, presented their concerns withregards to the proposed pipeline, to the Joint Review Panel Hearings on the MackenzieGas Project. During 42 hearings, there were 327 presentations made and of these 255were by northerners. Lee (2006) found that of the 255 presentations made bynortherners, 78 per cent expressed concerns about the environment.

Richard Binder, of the Inuvialuit Game Council, announced:

The Inuvialuit Game Council is not opposed to development in general nor the Mackenzie GasProject in particular. It is viewed as a major development which, if it proceeds, must becarefully mitigated to the greatest extent possible to ensure that there are minimal negativeeffects to wildlife the environment and traditional lifestyle. The Council has concerns abouthow this project may impact Inuvialuit harvesting and the long-term sustainability of wildlifehabitat [. . .] we will put forward these concerns and make suggestions as to how the projectcould be modified to mitigate these impacts.

By 2008, the Inuvialuit were less dependent on the land for subsistence than in the past,and they supported the project with the hope that they would benefit from training andemployment, but there was still concern about negative impacts. Our team decided tointerview people on Inuvialuit land, and learn more.

Plate 10.Booming community

Source: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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FindingsWe asked Inuvialuit participants about their past. Many reminisced about the excitinglife people had up to the middle of the twentieth century, but none told us that theywould go back to living exclusively off the land. Traditionally, the Inuvialuit wereself-sufficient by being self-employed in subsistence activities. Times have changedand the Canadian Arctic, today, consists largely of communities that are dependent ongovernment assistance for survival.

Inuvik has become an important regional hub and home to over 3,500 people,making it the second largest town in the Northwest Territories and Canada’s largestcommunity north of the Arctic Circle. Inuvik is more multicultural than are othersettlements in the Arctic. Immigrant entrepreneurs from Lebanon and Sudan wereamong the people we interviewed in Inuvik. As well, we interviewed Canadians fromthe Atlantic provinces who indicated that they came to Inuvik for work. “To get moneyfor school,” said one. “There is lots of money here,” said another. A librarian fromEdmonton told us, “I am making lots of money here to save for my future.”

Slightly less than half the residents of Inuvik are aboriginal and the Inuvialuit are thedominant aboriginal group here. Many of the Inuvialuit residents have moved here frommore remote communities. Almost half the residents of Inuvik go fishing or hunting, forfood; several interviewees explained that this is of cultural importance, but that they havebecome less dependent on caribou meat and other game, than was the case during the latetwentieth century. Diets have evolved and Inuvik is home to the largest communitygreenhouse in the world (Plate 11). Peter Clarkson, mayor of Inuvik at the time of our visit,pointed out to us that the greenhouse provides food and flowers, and also a social activity.

Existing oil and gas activities are maintaining a boom economy. Peter Clarksonbrought to our attention that not many other towns of 3,500 inhabitants have 350 hotelrooms and almost all of them brand new. The oil and gas industry pushed for a mobiletelephone infrastructure, and now the average person can use a mobile phoneanywhere in the Mackenzie River Delta.

Plate 11.Inuvik community

greenhouseSource: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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Inuvik is set to be the oil and gas capital of the Northwest Territories. Given that thenatural gas is under their land, the Inuvialuit could greatly benefit financially fromthe Mackenzie Gas Project. Owing to subsurface rights to a well northwest of Inuvik,the Inuvialuit already sell gas to the Inuvik power utility, via an existing, mostlycovered, pipeline. The Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation was among the developers ofthe Ikhil gas reservoir that now supplies natural gas to the Town of Inuvik, at a lowercost than diesel brought in from Edmonton. Located within the Inuvialuit settlementregion, the Ikhil gas field is in the Caribou Hills, northwest of Inuvik.

In an interview with Dana and Meis Mason, Andrew Applejohn, Director of theAurora Research Institute of Aurora College in Inuvik said:

We’re being supplied with natural gas locally within 60 kilometres and we’re paying about15 times the national price per gigajoule because we are not part of a national network.All of Canada’s laws about how much you can charge for gas go right out the windowbecause we are not connected to the infrastructure to sell it outside of Canada. We pay a lotfor energy despite the fact that we are producing the gas out of the ground here. Profits go tothe Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.

He went on to say:

Our cost of living is very closely tied to the price of fuel because everything is either truckedin, barged in, or flown in. Those communities, that have most of their fresh food air lifted in,are buying the most expensive groceries certainly in North America. The price of fuel has alot to do with the long-term sustainability of our communities.

When asked his views on the expanding activities of the oil and gas activity in the area,Clarkson told us:

As mayor and having lived in the area I think we need a broader economy – an economybased on more than government. Currently, in most of the North, the economy is based ongovernment. For the Beaufort Delta and Inuvik specifically, oil and gas adds another pillar tothe economic stool and that will hopefully make the area more sustainable and morediversified in the long-term.

He added that full employment causes a drop in alcoholism, “because when people areworking, they have less time to be drinking.”

Inuvialuit enterprises are very active and visible. The Inuvialuit DevelopmentCorporation has created or acquired over 30 companies operating in eight sectors:

(1) environmental services;

(2) health and hospital services;

(3) manufacturing;

(4) northern services;

(5) property management;

(6) real estate development;

(7) technology and communications; and

(8) transportation.

Many stand to gain from oil and gas industry activities. The Inuvialuit DevelopmentCorporation oil and gas group delivers various services through 12 companies:

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(1) Akita/Equtak Drilling.

(2) Aklak Air.

(3) Aklak Canadian Helicopters.

(4) Arctic Oil & Gas Services.

(5) Canadian North (Plate 12).

(6) Dowland Contracting.

(7) Inukshuk Geomatics.

(8) Inuvialuit Environmental & Geotechnical.

(9) Inuvialuit Northern Logistics.

(10) Inuvialuit Oilfield Services.

(11) Northern Transportation Company (NTCL).

(12) The Stanton Group.

With regards to construction of the pipeline, Peter Clarkson pointed out that of perhaps9,000 jobs involved in the construction of the pipeline, perhaps 2,000 would be held bypeople from the Northwest Territories. Recognising the need to up-grade theirknowledge and skills to ensure the Inuvialuit people are qualified for the jobs, theInuvialuit Regional Corporation established a partnership with Bow Valley College ofCalgary, a leading assessor and provider of work place essential skills. The Work Place

Plate 12.Canadian North Boeing

737-200Source: Photograph by Leo Paul Dana

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Readiness Programme will help Inuvialuit beneficiaries gain and keep employmentthrough in-class and on the job training. Also, adult and youth beneficiaries areencouraged to complete high school with appropriate math, science, literacy and otheressential skills. Since 2004, the Inuvialuit have accessed about $4 million from theAboriginal Human Resources Development Agreement, to upgrade education andtraining and to provide career readiness training for beneficiaries. They also wereactive in the development of the Pipelines Operations Training Committee formed in2002 to develop and implement training programmes, which would prepare aboriginaland other northern workers for the long-term employment opportunities associatedwith the Mackenzie Gas Project.

As for the future, during an interview with the lead author of this paper, NellieJ. Cournoyea, Chief Executive Officer of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, explainedthat the pipeline itself will provide relatively few direct jobs in the long-term. Withregards to maintenance of the pipeline, she stated, “Only about 50 people from theregion will be employed in jobs associated with operating and maintaining the pipeline,because of the high level of technology involved.” However, indirect employment andinvestment opportunities are expected; to secure future benefits, the Inuvialuit havejoined the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

In the long-term, the Inuvialuit will stand to gain financially from further explorations,as the industry seeks to keep the pipeline full. According to Nellie Cournoyea:

We have subsurface rights that have been discovered but we can’t do anything with it and itisn’t worth anything unless it starts moving. That is how the oil industry is governed. Theydon’t get money until they sell something. Just like, we don’t get money until we sell themuskrat.

She emphasised that the project will boost the economy and explained:

Economically, that’s the balance we have to create if people want to go to work and train forpositions to sustain their family. If you don’t have a job, you are living off a governmentsubsidy and that is not good for the people; they end up being too dependent. People getdisenchanted with themselves.

She elaborated on positive aspects, “The oil industry will gain. The government willgain on royalties.”

Peter Clarkson told our lead author that the municipal government was concernedabout wear and tear on the town’s infrastructure:

The municipality wants to ensure that the municipal infrastructure is enhanced and notdamaged by large-scale oil and gas development. If you’re going to build a pipeline and it isrequiring 5,000 truckloads of equipment, we want our roads to be in better shape after thatand not completely destroyed.

While the project has positive potential, there is also concern. A taxi driver from Sudan,living in Inuvik since 1995, told us that the oil industry caused much harm in Sudanand he predicted the same would happen in the Delta. A restaurant owner from Asiatold us that construction of a pipeline would have net benefits only in the short-term.An aboriginal interviewee suggested that industrial development causes alienationand an increase in displaced people as the price of houses escalates. Another predicted,“There will be the rich and the have-nots and this will cause crime, violence and familybreakdown. There has already been an increase in suicide rates.” A father said:

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What I don’t like is that those workers from the south, eh, they bring drugs with them and ourkids get messed up. And nobody will want to go to school when they see the easy money theycan get as wages.

An airline employee exclaimed:

My mom went back to Tuk [Tuktuuyaqtuuk] last year where she was from. She almost cried.All the changes were not for the good. The pipeline, although it will bring jobs, will make a lotof damage to the environment and to our way of life.

In an interview with Dana and Meis Mason, Andrew Applejohn commented:

There is a fairly mature attitude towards development amongst government, aboriginalagencies and communities. You can’t talk about oil and gas development in the MackenzieDelta without reflecting back on what happened 30 years ago with Shell and Imperial’sexperience and any of the players here. There was more or less abandonment of Arctic oil andgas in the wake of Berger and in the wake of $20 a barrel oil. There is a mature attitude now.People, here, have been through the boom. They have experienced the positive and negative.When big oil came back to the Delta there was a much different attitude about responsibledevelopment. There is a much more effective long-term strategy for all three groups. Not to beseduced by quick boom economies but to look at the whole picture. Right from the quickinvestment of cash and infrastructure and capital investment through the negatives of thesocio economic impacts and long-term environmental.

Nellie Cournoyea told Dana:

Sixty per cent our claim deals with wildlife and environmental issues. Therefore, it isimportant to limit the impact as much as possible [. . .] This is a big pipeline. It goes through avery sensitive area. It’s a geese hunting area and a caribou hunting area. The majority of ourpeople still extensively use this area for hunting food. Through the hearings we hope tominimise the impact [. . .] because everyone has had a chance to speak about their concerns.We helped finance some of the organisations so the people would be prepared and make theirconcerns known. People will have a chance to speak in Inuvik and Aklavik and the outlyingcommunities. This is ongoing until the hearings are concluded. All the people who say theyare against the pipeline say it is based on some conditions. Even those who say they are forthe pipeline say there are some conditions that must be met. We may object to some parts ofthe project. The company will have to do something about it if they want to be good corporatecitizens. Imperial Oil would have to evaluate the required conditions and calculate the costand the return on their investment.

ConclusionMuch has changed over the past 50 years. In an interview with the lead author of thispaper, Nellie Cournoyea stated:

You were more in control of your life before. It was easy to understand what you had to do tosurvive. There were values that were firmly entrenched in terms of your behaviour and yourwork ethic. It was much clearer and everyone was basically doing the same thing. There wasno government until the 1950s. Everybody needed each other to survive.

In today’s society, people need money to survive.The theoretical framework, for interpreting such change, fits best within

contingency theory (Woodward, 1965). The factors supporting the contingencyperspective relate to the powers now expressed by local forces as opposed to

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global ones. Firstly, the Inuvialuit land claim has been settled, as have others in theregion. Secondly, as a result of such settlements, aboriginal organisations that emergedhave elected to engage in the market economy. Nellie Cournoyea referred to this newbusiness climate and stated:

The biggest change since the 1970s is that the oil and gas industry realises aboriginal peopleare an integral part of development, and that they must receive a fair share of resourcerevenue and have the opportunity to invest directly in pipelines and offshoot businesses.

In the case of the Inuvialuit, a fair settlement of land claims has provided the capital forentrepreneurship and business development and contributed to the rebuilding of theInuvialuit nation by preserving the Inuvialuit culture, identity and values. The Inuvialuitpeople are proud to own the Inuvialuit Development Corporation, a global leader amongaboriginal development corporations. The Inuvialuit people are relatively well off andthey do not need to rely on subsistence self-employment for survival; however, hunting,trapping and harvesting country foods is culturally and socially very important. Asexpressed by Nellie Cournoyea, “If you go caribou hunting, you share that.”

The Mackenzie Gas Project is a massive project that could spur demand for airtravel and marine transportation along with additional oil and gas exploration anddrilling throughout the North, services that the Inuvialuit are ideally positioned toprovide through their various enterprises, including their airline Canadian North. Thequestion remains, however, what will be the social cost?

For future research, the shift in relationship between the Inuvialuit andenvironmental groups deserves attention. Aboriginal groups and environmentalistwere strong allies during the Berger days. Now the Inuvialuit, are proponents of theMackenzie Gas Project. Environmental representatives are not.

Note

1. Inuvialuktun is one of the three Inuit official languages in the Northwest Terrirories, theothers being Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut.

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Corresponding authorLeo-Paul Dana can be contacted at: leo.dana@canterbury.ac.nz

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