Local business leaders and a territorial cabinet minister are expressing concern that a vocal critic of the resource sector, and of the governments that support it, is managing a review of the territory's oversight agency on resource development.

"If this is chaired by somebody that has this history, we demand that any review process is done in a fair and objective manner," Carl Schulze, president of the Yukon Chamber of Mines, told the Star.

The chair in question is Shelagh Montgomery, the project manager for SENES Consultants Ltd., hired to conduct the five-year review of the Yukon Environment and Socioeconomic Assessment Act (YESAA).

While Montgomery's credentials, posted on YESAA's review website, include the environmental scientist's Canadian Arctic Resources Committee work, what is missing is her membership with Alternatives North, a Yellowknife-based social advocacy group.

With Montgomery often acting as its spokeswoman, Alternatives North voiced strong and relentless opposition to the proposed $16-billion Mackenzie Gas Project, throughout two years of hearings in the Northwest Territories.

Montgomery also played the go-between for other anti-pipeline activists and groups, passing communications from the Sierra Club, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and individuals on to the Joint Review Panel, charged with assessing potential socioeconomic impacts of the pipeline.

"This is the first I've heard of it," Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Brad Cathers said when told of Montgomery's past activism.

Cathers added the information "was of concern," but declined further comment on the matter.

When the Star asked Montgomery if her anti-pipeline position could compromise her review of YESAA, she said no.

"I can assure you that it (won't). This is not my personal project. This is a project conducted by a team that has very high credentials, and I happen to be one of those team members," she said.

"The review is being conducted openly, transparently and in a comprehensive manner, and we're going to use the information we get and we're not going to be making up information."

But where the SENES review team gets its information and whether industry is given a fair shake are what has Schulze worried.

"There seems to be a lot of weight towards the conservation groups, and there needs to be equal weight towards the resource sector," said Schulze after hearing a radio interview with Montgomery in which she mentioned a raft of environmental advocacy agencies the SENES team intends to contact during the review.

"These kinds of outfits are not proponents. What they are, are critics," Schulze continued, adding that Montgomery and her team have already met with the chamber.

"We just had a fairly short meeting. Basically, I told them what I just told you, (the review) has to be objective ...and they stated that they were certainly willing to have more (dialogue) with us."

And dialogue, especially when it comes to criticizing resource development, is Montgomery's forte.

After the Northwest Territories government offered Mackenzie pipeline proponents guarantees that no new taxes would be imposed with respect to the project, Montgomery called the action "shameful."

"(The government) failed the public interest in its cheer-leading of the Mackenzie Gas Project during the environment assessment process," she wrote in a March 2008 letter to N.W.T. MP Dennis Bevington.

In the same letter, which supported the New Democratic Party MP's call for public debate on the territory's diamond mining industry, Montgomery criticized government incentives that could entice skilled labour to the N.W.T.

"Alternatives North questions the wisdom of allocating any resources to the encouragement of more immigration to the N.W.T., especially of workers for employment in non-renewable industries," Montgomery wrote.

"It is better in our view to regulate the labour demands of industry so that existing northern labour can meet it. Not only would this strategy bring benefits to northerners, it should also serve to stretch out the life of mines."

When the Star asked if industry operating in the Yukon could expect equal representation in SENES's review, Montgomery replied in the affirmative, while distancing her work for the consulting firm from her past activism.

"I have not been, in my personal life, which happens to be my personal life, a critic of benefits to the North," she said.

"And as far as this review goes ... it's not a review of the mining industry and the socioeconomic benefits to the Yukon, it's a review of the process that assesses projects."

According to Indian and Northern Affairs official Ron Chambers, bringing in SENES to review YESAA was a decision made jointly by the federal and Yukon governments and the Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN).

"We looked at team members' experience with similar projects ... we looked at team members' experience working with first nations and we asked for a minimum of two references for each area of expertise," Chambers explained.

The goal was to get an independent assessment, avoiding biases that could result if one or all of the three stakeholders took on the YESAA review, said Chambers.

He also added that of 11 submissions they received from across Canada, SENES, which employs Montgomery, offered the best fit and the sum of its review team's parts was more important than individual members.

"We took a look at a number of areas," Chambers said. "We looked at the company's demonstrated understanding of what was required ... we took a look at the whole package, each and every team member's qualifications (and) what they brought as a team."

Also part of the SENES team is Jennifer Ellis, the former director of the Yukon Conservation Society (YCS).

Yukon Chamber of Commerce president Dave Austin said both Montgomery's and Ellis's involvement reviewing YESAA raises some red flags.

"I don't want to get too personal with this sort of thing; we'd be blatantly accusing them of trying to skew the process if we did," said Austin,.

When he was the manager of the Yukon Chamber of Mines, he added, he and Ellis - then a YCS director - "were always butting heads."

"(But) from a chamber standpoint, all we're concerned about is that it's an open and fair consultative process and that all input is considered," Austin said. "To start bashing these people, I don't think that's what we're here for."

But Austin said the makeup of the SENES team makes him question the selection process.

While Chambers offered INAC's version of events that resulted in SENES getting the review contract, both Gail Barnaby, who speaks for the CYFN on the YESAA file, and the territorial government's representative, Cynthia Tucker - a former Liberal cabinet minister - failed to respond to interview requests for this story.

This morning, a Yukon government official, Heidi Rumscheidt, said Chambers is the official spokesperson for the review because YESAA is federal legislation.

According to the timeline of its YESAA review, a preliminary report of comments from aboriginal groups, industry, environmental organizations and individual citizens is due out in mid-April.

This will be made available for scrutiny and additional comments, with a final report and recommendations to be completed by July.