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INUVIK - The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) is putting the finishing touches on a business plan to access the $150 million Mackenzie Gas Impact Fund - and education and addictions programs top the list of priorities.

Bob Simpson and Lucy Kuptana, director, intergovernmental relations and executive director of community development division for the IRC, respectively are two of the project's main players.

Bob Simpson and Lucy Kuptana of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation review one section of the proposed Mackenzie pipeline environmental impact statement at their office on Friday. The pair are putting the final touches on a business plan to access the $150 million Mackenzie Gas Impact Fund. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

They said the overwhelming priority among citizens deals with education and addictions services, which are already urgent concerns.

"The fund is all about mitigating the impacts of the Mackenzie Pipeline when it arrives," said Kuptana. "I think addictions services in our region are limited. It's a big problem in our communities in Inuvik as a regional centre, and people see it and have been talking about it for years, but government doesn't have the funds to even face the problem."

Likewise is education, said Simpson who's been involved in extensive talks with the Beaufort Delta Education Council about increasing teaching staff, providing more specialized education, scholarships as well as more infrastructure such as science labs. Cultural and language training as well as investing in early childhood development are a priorities in the plan as well.

The money will come from a $500 million fund split up among the Inuvialuit, Gwich'in, Sahtu, and Dehcho regions designed to deal with impacts of the proposed $16 billion pipeline, particularly socioeconomic concerns. The IRC's portion will be spread out over 10 years.

Simpson and Kuptana are involved in the final drafting of the 400-page document, which will be completed in the upcoming weeks.

In their roles as project facilitators for the last three years, the duo have been consulting each Beaufort Delta community through surveys and several workshops to find out where the community feels the money should be spent.

The pipeline project is still being studied by the Joint Review Panel. After that, it's expected the federal government will set up an agency to manage the money through guidance from a regional committee made up of four appointed Inuvialuit representatives and two territorial government representatives.

The plan also calls for an addictions centre, in which Kuptana said she would like to see a holistic approach to healing, pointing to the former House of Hope in Tuktoyaktuk as a good example, where patients were cared for long after being discharged.

"We need a place that promotes sobriety and family, where people can go and feel comfortable and they don't feel pressure to drink."

The pair will be looking for a release of money to start infrastructure projects a few years in advance of the pipeline project. this will allow them to be ahead of the game.

"We're still dealing with the impacts of residential schools, and the 1980s when oil was a big thing in the Beaufort Sea,: said Kuptana.

"People are still dealing with that and to have the pipeline on top of this, it's going to be huge and it's going to hit a lot of families. We have to be prepared."