Enbridge's Manager, Projects, Aboriginal Affairs Lyle Neis (left) and Chief Morris Monias at the Heart Lake First Nation's sawmill near Lac La Biche, Alberta. Enbridge provided $75,000 in funding to support the First Nation's purchase of the sawmill.

Enbridge became one of the Heart Lake First Nation sawmill's first customers, placing an order for 50,000 skids (pictured at right) for use in the construction of the Waupisoo Pipeline. Employing over 10 people, the sawmill is already serving other customers in the region.

Enbridge's Doug Cook (left), Pipelines Lead, and Trevor Klein, Field Engineer, discuss the Waupisoo Pipeline route, which was finalized after extensive consultations with local communities, landowners, Aboriginals and other stakeholders.

Why Name It Waupisoo?

We named our newest oil sands pipeline in honour of Chief Waupisoo, source of history's first known reference to the Athabasca oil sands.

In 1715, the Cree chief told Hudson's Bay Company governor James Knight of a river with banks of “gum or pitch”. Although Europeans thought the tarry bitumen worthless, the area's Aboriginal people used it as a waterproof seal for canoe seams.

The Waupisoo Pipeline goes through territory that is new for Enbridge so we doubled our efforts to consult with and inform local communities, landowners, Aboriginals and other stakeholders in a region unfamiliar with our company, values and project plans. As always, our approach to consultation was to gather opinions, encourage collaboration, treat all stakeholders equally, ensure that everyone's rights are respected, and exceed regulatory requirements for communicating with stakeholders.

For the Waupisoo Pipeline, our participant involvement and stakeholder communication program began in mid-2005, six months before we filed our application for regulatory approval, and will continue after the pipeline is operational in mid-2008. About 15 Enbridge employees directed various parts of the process, with many other team members involved.

To start, we contacted 26 Aboriginal communities within a wide area around the pipeline route. Nine of these declared that their rights and traditional uses could be impacted by the project and we followed up with all of them through community meetings and open houses and extensive consultations. In the fall of 2006, four First Nation communities raised objections to the project, stating that consultations were not complete and raising concerns about impacts to traditional territory and the environment. After further meetings where we were able to gain a better understanding of community issues and project participation objectives, the issues and concerns were resolved and the First Nations communities had withdrawn all their objections by mid-December.

The Waupisoo Pipeline has created several collaborative business opportunities for the Aboriginal communities along the route. For example, with partial funding from Enbridge, the Heart Lake First Nation near Lac La Biche purchased a sawmill and we then became one of their first customers, placing an order for the skids we use in the pipeline's construction. To prepare our regulatory filings, we worked with several Aboriginal communities to compile traditional knowledge within the project footprint. Five communities have been contracted by Enbridge to carry out right-of-way clearing.

Our approach to landowner consultation was equally thorough. We sent information packages to and, where possible, personally met with all landowners and residents with properties within 200 metres of the proposed pipeline right-of-way, or within 500 metres of the proposed pump stations and terminals. We sent our regular project information mail-outs to about 1,000 stakeholders. We held community open houses in Fort McMurray, Grassland, Radway, Bruderheim and Sherwood Park that attracted over 300 people and helped us forge person-to-person relationships with those most directly impacted by the project. We also proactively engaged the landowners associations that formed to negotiate rights collectively. Through this process we developed an addendum to the easement agreements that addressed environmental and construction issues. A primary issue for landowners was routing, including instances where landowners asked that the pipeline be routed onto their property.

Ultimately, the final pipeline route was determined with significant input from landowners and communities along the right-of-way.