Waiting another year for a report on the proposed Mackenzie gas and pipeline project will hurt the economy of N.W.T.'s Beaufort Delta, local businessmen say.

The region has been anxiously awaiting results of the joint panel's review of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of $16.2 billion project, proposed by a consortium of companies, led by Imperial Oil.

Although federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice, who in government has the Mackenzie pipeline file, said just last week the report would be ready by May, the panel announced Friday it will not be ready until December, 2009.

Inuvik contractor Vince Sharpe said it's "the worst economic news" the region could have received, since the economy has already slowed down considerably.

"People aren't making money," Sharpe said. "People aren't building houses. It trickles down to everybody. Everybody in this whole region is going to suffer."

His colleague Fred Bailey, who manages a company that serves the oil and gas industry, said the wait is frustrating.

"I just don't understand why it takes so long to assemble all this information and make heads or tails out of it," he said. "It can't be that complicated."

Businessman and former mayor Tom Zubko said the seven-member panel lost control of the review during the process, which began in 2004 and included 115 days of public hearings.

"Incompetence? No, that's pretty charitable," said Zubko, adding he has to wonder whether the panel will be able to meet its new deadline.

The panel recently met in Yellowknife to figure out how much time it needed to finish its report, said spokesman Brian Chambers.

Although it knows people are getting tired of waiting for the report, panel members want to be sure they do a good job on such an important project, he said.

The proposed 1,200-kilometre pipeline would carry natural gas from the Beaufort Delta to northern Alberta where it would join existing lines.