The Northwest Territories government has a study on whether some small communities could end up using natural gas instead of diesel for power and heat — if the Mackenzie Valley pipeline goes ahead — but it's keeping that study under wraps.

With regulatory bodies set to decide this year whether the proposed pipeline should be built, the territorial government has been looking at the possibility that some communities near the pipeline route could be converted to natural gas — an environmentally friendlier, and potentially cheaper, alternative to burning diesel.

N.W.T. Industry Minister Bob McLeod said the communities of Fort Good Hope, Tulita and Fort Simpson, N.W.T., are being targetted for potential gas conversions if the pipeline is approved.

"Once you have the connectors, then you'd have to find a way to patch it to all the buildings that people wanted to participate, and who could do that?" McLeod told CBC News.

"Is it a job for government? Is that something that we would find some other business that would do it?"

Costs being analyzed

In 2006, experts estimated upward of $10.2 million in savings over 20 years, but the upfront costs of building power plants and community pipelines totalled $37 million.

A new, similar study was done for the N.W.T. government last year, but government officials have refused to make that study public, not even to the communities involved.

"It seems flawed. If it was complete and paid for, it's public information," Fort Simpson Mayor Sean Whelly said.

"Why aren't the communities being able to access that report?"

The findings of that study are supposed to guide a contract that the territorial government advertised last month, seeking companies to analyze the cost of converting diesel power plants to natural gas.

However, the government would not even release the study to potential bidders such as Northland Utilities.

"From what I understand, there's only been one bidder," Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay said.

"If you allowed potential bidders access to the report that was previously done, you would probably get more bidders and perhaps a better end product."

The government has also not yet released the name of the company that won the bid, or how much it will be paid for its work.