The federal government's decision to replace Gabrielle Mackenzie-Scott as chairwoman of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board shows Ottawa is not listening to northerners, some critics say.

Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced last week that Richard Edjericon, a current member of the eight-person environmental assessment board, would be promoted to chairman.

The move came six months after the board recommended that Mackenzie-Scott be reappointed for a second three-year term. With her appointment not renewed, she will be off the job on Tuesday.

"The hardest part for myself was, you know, the anticipation in the last week — not knowing, and knowing that my term was coming up," Mackenzie-Scott told CBC News in an interview.

She said Strahl's staff did not give any reason for replacing her, or for waiting until the last minute to notify her.

That approach shows a lack of respect for both her and people living in Canada's North, said Ray Griffith, the N.W.T. manager with the World Wildlife Fund of Canada.

Griffith said the review board's controversial decision last year to reject uranium exploration in the Northwest Territories' Upper Thelon basin may have embarrassed the Conservative government.

"It put them in a difficult position, because of pressures from industry," Griffith said. "I certainly suspect that that had some impact on the decision."

The federal government appointed Edjericon to the environmental review board a year ago. In 2006, Edjericon ran for the federal Conservatives in the Western Arctic riding in 2006, losing to current NDP MP Dennis Bevington.

Bevington said the Conservative government, like the Liberals before them, are ignoring what northerners want.

"The boards have to have some good measure of independence, and they have to be seen to be independent as well," he said.

"What the minister's done here again is put that all into question."

In her last week as board chair, Mackenzie-Scott gave some advice to Neil McCrank, the advisor hired by Strahl to review the northern regulatory process.

"Boards like ours are … the product of land claims, and one of the things that I said to Neil was, 'Leave us alone,'" she said.

"Boards like ours are still very young — you know, we're about 10 years old — so let us have time to grow."

McCrank is expected to deliver his report to Strahl in the next couple of months.