Answer 2: I thought that the pipeline that was proposed 35 years ago, would have a tremendous impact on the environment especially in the northern Yukon, because that pipeline if you think about a map of the Arctic in your mind's eye, the pipeline then was going to bring gas from Prudhoe Bay and Alaska across the Arctic coast of the Yukon, and then pick up the gas from the Mackenzie Delta and bring it south along the Mackenzie Valley.

In the end I recommended we should never build a pipeline across the northern Yukon, because that was calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd, about 120,000 animals. It was the area where the Snow geese, about 500,000, come every year. I thought we should just say no to a pipeline there. Two wilderness parks have been established there now to protect the caribou, the Snow geese, the muskrats and many other species.

But I did say that in the Mackenzie Valley, once the government settled the land claims of the Dene and the Inuvialuit, you could build a pipeline from the Delta mainly along the east side of the river to Alberta. I think that is the route they intend to follow with this latest pipeline proposal. And if they follow that route they will be able to minimize the environmental impact.