N.W.T. regulator starting process that could grant Imperial Oil emergency water licence

An N.W.T. regulator is moving ahead with a process that could grant Imperial Oil an emergency three-year water licence. 

Imperial Oil's current water licence is set to expire in March, and the process of issuing a normal renewal is on hold because the entire operation in Norman Wells, N.W.T., is now the subject of an environment assessment. 

The long-standing oil company said allowing that licence to lapse would be a big problem, and it's been articulating the urgency of the situation. Without some kind of interim licence, Imperial Oil said it would be forced to shut down – putting infrastructure, the environment and the region's economy at risk. 

In a response on Jan. 10, the Sahtu Land and Water Board (SLWB) agreed a closure would amount to an emergency and therefore, under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, it could initiate a process to issue a short-term licence. 

"The SLWB will proceed immediately with the expedited regulator process for the proposed renewal of the Type A licence," reads the board's letter. 

The board said the three-year licence would require the signature of Canada's northern affairs minister, and although it didn't anticipate issues with that, it was likely that the current water licence would expire before the minister signs off.

The board is also working on granting a 60-day licence to cover that gap. It doesn't require a minister's signature. 

Each licence – the 60-day and the three-year – comes with its own public input process before the SLWB makes its final decisions. The board says people have until Jan. 27 to give input on both of them. 

The fact that Imperial Oil's water licence and its operations licence from the Canada Energy Regulator were up for renewal is part of what allowed the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated to trigger an environmental assessment of the operation in the first place. 

There's a separate environmental assessment underway for Imperial's plans to replace a damaged pipeline, called Line 490. The company has also said it would initiate a third environmental assessment – this one for its closure plans – by the end of March.