The Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project held hearings today at the Westmark Hotel to give the general public and special interest groups a chance to voice their thoughts on the multi-billion dollar project.

The old timeline for the project proposed the 1,220 km pipeline could be up and pumping 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day by 2010. The estimated cost of planning construction and operation was $7 billion dollars.

But Randy Ottenbreit, Imperial Oil's manager for the project, said this morning those estimates will need to be updated.

Ottenbreit, along with other Imperial Oil representatives, responded to questions from the Yukon government and the Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation during the first portion of the hearings this morning. The hearings, which will conclude in April, will be used by the National Energy Board to decide if the pipeline should go ahead.

To help gather information on the social, cultural and environmental impacts of the pipeline, the National Energy Board formed the Joint Review Panel to hold hearings and draft a report.

'We can recommend methods to reduce negative impacts and to enhance positive impacts,' panel chair Robert Hornal said during the opening comments.

Ottenbreit then gave an overview of the project that will take natural gas from anchor fields in Taglu, Parsons Lake and Niglintgak, N.W.T. and transport it to a facility in northern Alberta.

No part of the pipeline or related facilities would be built in the Yukon.

� 'Project activities in the Yukon would be related to highway traffic associated with the transportation of goods to and from the Mackenzie Delta and the shipment of project materials through Yukon coastal waters,' Ottenbreit said.

Imperial Oil, ConocoPhillips, Shell Canada and Exxon Mobil will all share the pipeline and draw gas from specific anchor fields.

Ottenbreit described the environmental impact statement the company developed for the project.

That statement gave an overview of the project and its social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts.

To develop the statement, the oil companies consulted with communities and scientists to determine what the scope of the environmental assessment would be.

'We then used this information to describe current conditions, identify concerns and issues, potential project effects and select the pipeline route and locate project facilities,' he said.

In the summary that followed, Ottenbriet laid out what those effects would be.

He said wildlife may be affected by increased highway traffic, but only slightly as the number of project-related vehicles is low compared to existing traffic. He predicted a maximum of 200 trucks would travel on Yukon Highways over the two years of construction, with eight trucks a month resupplying the associated facilities afterwards.

'The most obvious traffic will be on the Dempster Highway.'

The vast majority of materials, he explained, would be shipped rather than driven.

In the end, Ottenbreit said the environmental assessment found no negative effects

'The Yukon will experience very little project activity and therefore there will be few biophysical effects in the Yukon.'

The majority of Ottenbreit's presentation focused on the socio-economic effects of the project.

'We expect that Yukon residents will participate in project-related work,' said Ottenbreit.

Yukon participation in the project is not expected to be large, but overall labour demands will exceed the available northern labour supply, he said.

'There will be seasonal and year-round jobs. There will also be a combination of jobs in association with the project, jobs created to supply contractors working on the project and jobs created by people spending project-related income.'

Northern workers and contractors will also have a better chance of working for the project than southern competitors.

'The project will give preference to interested, available and qualified Yukon residents over similarly qualified residents from southern Canada,' said Ottenbriet.

The Yukon government is also working on a list of suppliers for goods and services that the oil companies will provide to contractors.

Workers on the project will have access to training focused on money management and the prevention of drug and alcohol abuse.

'Project construction camps will be drug and alcohol free,' he said.

Job training could be done through Yukon College, said Ottenbreit, but so far there have been no discussions or plans to do so.

When the Yukon government's representative, Gordon Nettleton, asked if the companies planned to initiate those discussions, Ottenbreit said no.

He recommended the Yukon government speak directly to the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership about such an arrangement. The federal organization was created to provide training to aboriginal communities involved in major economic initiatives.