Search the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Community Hearing Transcripts

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Berger Inquiry: Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Community Hearing Transcripts

In 1974, the Canadian federal government appointed Justice Thomas Berger to head up the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry. Justice Berger was to consider the social, environmental and economic impact of a gas pipeline and energy corridor from the Western Arctic up the Mackenzie Valley to Alberta and beyond. Awaiting his conclusions, were the proponents of the largest megaproject in Canadian history, the giants of the North American oil industry.
The government made no attempt to tell Berger how to conduct his inquiry. In fact, he might have undertaken the task, in the manner of National Energy Board hearings at that time, from the comfort of well-appointed hearing rooms in Ottawa, Calgary and perhaps Yellowknife. But that wasn't the judge's choice. He consulted widely with all interested parties and decided subsequently to take his inquiry into every affected community in the Northwest Territories, remote village after remote village, in addition to the major centres of the South.
What followed was a remarkable example of public engagement that set a standard that has not been matched since. The outcome was a report and recommendations that have shaped the political, social and economic progress of the Northwest Territories ever since and with ramifications for the country as a whole.

Allwest Reporting Ltd. was hired to produce the original transcripts and are now making them available in electonic form. You can browse the documents or use the following form to search all the transcripts with WebSonar.

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