Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (May 07/99) - Adult Inuvialuit beneficiaries get to share in recent Inuvialuit Regional Corporation success after a board report that consolidated profit from all IRC companies last year was $7.97 million.

The 2979 eligible beneficiaries are set to receive $401.51 each in mid-May -- their share of the $1,196,100 the IRC will distribute.

"It's based on the IRC distribution policy," says IRC communications advisor Peggy Jay.

"What was decided in 1997 was that 15 per cent of the profits, if there were a profit, would be given to beneficiaries and the rest would be ploughed back to the corporation because we still have an obligation to make sure there is enough money for future generations."

Companies firmly in the black include the Inuvialuit Development Corporation, the Inuvialuit Investment Corporation and the Inuvialuit Land Corporation.

When the Ikhil pipeline starts heating Inuvik homes, many expect one of the project's major partners, the Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation, to similarly add to its parent corporation's profits.

"I know people say, 'Hey why don't you give out the whole amount,'" Jay says.

"The thing is if you give out the whole amount you start eating into your capital when you've got to still build it up."

Jay says many of the figures within the IRC companies are being finalized with auditors and the annual report is expected out in June.