"We're at the critical juncture here," said Brendan Bell, tourism and investment minister of the Northwest Territories, on a visit to New York.

"Throughout this project I've never been more concerned about anything than the costs and the economics of the project and the negotiations that have to happen between the producers and Canada," he said.

Imperial Oil Ltd. and its partners are in negotiations with the Canadian government in hopes of winning federal financial support. Cost estimates for the project have more than double over the past three years due to higher raw material prices and tight labor.

The other partners in the line are ConocoPhillips, Shell Canada Ltd., Exxon Mobil Corp. and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

Bell said he hopes Ottawa will agree to help construct the roads, bridges, airstrips and barge landings needed to build the 750-mile (1,200 km) natural gas pipeline and backstop loans required by the Aboriginal Pipeline Group to take an agreed one-third stake in the project.

"There are certainly some things that we have felt over the past year that we have discussed with Canada that we feel would be a proper role for government," Bell said.

"But I am more concerned about the producers, and hope that they have the will to see this thing through, even though the costs have escalated," he said.

The Northwest Territories' Mackenzie Valley, on Canada's Arctic coast, has about 6 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves, but could potentially hold over 100 tcf, he said.

"I think there's a much brighter and much bigger future and I hope that will be taken into consideration when (the oil companies) are running the numbers," Bell said.

In a presentation to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington Thursday, Bell said the completion of the pipeline project could save North Americans US$340 billion between 2014 and 2025 and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 280 million tons -- about twice the annual carbon dioxide output of California.

"Northerners are on the front lines of climate change. We are being impacted first and hardest. Nobody more than us wants to find a solution," Bell said. "We think our Arctic gas can be part of that solution, and we've got to get it to market and help you reduce emissions."

Bell said that after navigating some thorny land rights issues, most aboriginal groups support the pipeline.

"There's one main holdout region left, called the Dehcho, who are not necessarily opposed to development or the pipeline," Bell said. "But the leadership has certainly recognized that Canada wants to see this project happen, they don't yet have a settled claim and this is an obvious lever in their negotiations with Canada."