Gjoa Haven to vote in alcohol plebiscite

Eligible voters in Gjoa Haven will head to the polls Dec. 14 to take part in a liquor plebiscite. Voters in the western Nunavut community of 1,300 will decide if the hamlet should remain under a prohibited system that does not permit any alcohol, or go to a restricted system where alcohol orders into the community are controlled by an alcohol education committee. About 50 residents voted in an advance poll Dec. 7, said Elections Nunavut, which administers the plebiscite. (PHOTO COURTESY OF NUNAVUT TOURISM)

Eligible voters in the Kitikmeot community of Gjoa Haven will head to the polls next week to vote on whether to lift a prohibition on possessing alcohol in the community.

Voters in this western Nunavut hamlet of about 1,300 people will decide Dec. 14 if their community should maintain its current system, which prohibits the possession of any alcohol, or move to a restricted purchasing system under an alcohol committee system.

In Nunavut, the alcohol committee system puts decision-making powers into the hands of such committees. They decide who can bring alcohol into the community and how much.

“Are you in favour of replacing the current prohibition system in Gjoa Haven with a committee system and establishing a Gjoa Haven Alcohol Education Committee?” the plebiscite questions reads, to which voters can vote Yes or No.

The committee system is the most common one used in Nunavut, with alcohol education committees set up in 15 communities across the territory.

Under the Nunavut Liquor Commission, those committees have the power to decide:

• who can consume, possess, purchase or transport liquor in the community;

• who may import liquor into the community;

• the amount of liquor that a person may possess, purchase, transport or import in the community; and,

• who may apply for a permit to make their own wine or beer at home and the amount that individual is permitted to produce.

Currently, Gjoa Haven is one of six dry communities — where alcohol is completely prohibited. The others are Arviat, Coral Harbour, Kugaaruk, Pangnirtung and Sanikiluaq.

Five other communities — Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit, Taloyoak and Grise Fiord — operate under what’s called an unrestricted system, which allows any resident of legal drinking age to order alcohol from outside the community.

Three of those communities allow liquor sales to the public through restaurant or bar settings.

It requires the signatures of only 20 residents to trigger an alcohol plebiscite in Nunavut, if at least three years have passed since a similar vote.

Just last year, residents of Taloyoak went to the polls to decide if their community should move to an alcohol committee system, a proposal voters rejected in the end.

Earlier in 2014, Arviat, Chesterfield Inlet and Kugluktuk all gauged local interest in loosening alcohol restrictions but in the end, all three voted to keep restrictions on alcohol imports.

In April 2015, Iqalungmiut voted in favour of a pilot, government-run beer and wine, store, although the results of that plebiscite were non-binding.

And just this past September, residents of Cape Dorset voted to keep its alcohol education committee.

A change to a current alcohol regime in a community requires at least 60 per cent of the vote in a plebiscite.