A Citizen’s Guide

The head of Doyon Ltd. on Friday charged that Alaska Native landowners have until now been ignored in the state’s quest to get a natural gas pipeline built from the North Slope, and must be acknowledged.

“The First Peoples of this state were forgotten in the planning of that line,” said Orie Williams, referring to former Gov. Frank Murkowski’s failed gas line deal with the state’s three major producers.

Not working with Native landowners until late in the game is not politically smart and “will only delay a fantastic project,” he said.

Williams spoke at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention during a panel discussion on the gas pipeline with Arctic Slope Regional Corp. President Bobbi Quintavell; Cook Inlet Regional, Inc. President Margie Brown; Doyon board member Bob Brean; Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin; and Labor Commissioner Click Bishop.

Brown and Quintavell discussed how Alaska Natives and Native corporations could take advantage of the opportunities of a gas pipeline.

The full impact of the project is “almost incomprehensible” in its size, said Quintavell, and the opportunities will provide a new economic underpinning.

Both stressed the importance of taking advantage of job opportunities, and Brown added that CIRI was considering trying to buy into the pipeline project as a joint owner.

“We need to look at that hard as this one comes forward,” she said.

Quintavell warned against taking an equity position because of the risk and the size of the commitment, which she said would likely be small and not grant much control.

“We have to be very careful,” she said.

Irwin gave an overview of Murkowski’s proposal and Gov. Sarah Palin’s new plan for getting a pipeline built, and Bishop described the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s efforts to prepare workers.

The task of developing a work force for the multibillion-dollar project is “nothing short of what the allies did to prepare for the invasion of Europe,” he said.

So far, the department has assembled a steering committee with representatives from businesses, industry, and K-12 and higher education and is working on a 6-year training plan.

One idea is to partner with regional training centers, he said, and one perk is the opportunity to train workers for jobs that are available now.

Contact staff writer Stefan Milkowski at 459-7577.