Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA wants more consultation on beer-wine store

A voter heads into the Iqaluit cadet hall on April 20, 2015 to cast a ballot in a local plebiscite on whether to open a beer and wine store in Iqaluit as a pilot project. Of the 1,452 people who cast ballots, 77.5 per cent voted “Yes” to this question: “Are you in favour of a beer and wine store opening in the City of Iqaluit?” But Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Paul Okalik said June 1 that people have not been adequately consulted on the issue. (FILE PHOTO)

(Updated with clarification June 3)

The future of a beer and wine store in Iqaluit once again came up inside Nunavut’s legislative assembly June 1.

That’s when Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Paul Okalik said the Government of Nunavut should do more consultation before moving ahead with the project.

Okalik, who resigned as health minister over the issue in March, rose during question period to ask Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna to “slow the process down so people can be well informed.”

Taptuna deferred Okalik’s questions to the Keith Peterson, the minister responsible for the Nunavut Liquor Commission,.

“There was a lot of consultation on liquor and that’s precisely why we did the task force,” Peterson said, referring to the Nunavut Liquor Act Review Task Force report from 2012, which called for a “harm reduction” approach to alcohol through a Government of Nunavut controlled liquor-sales monopoly.

“They made a number of recommendations and one of them was to open a beer and wine outlet and the GN has proposed to open up a pilot project for three years, to monitor,” Peterson said.

Okalik cited correspondence, tabled at the legislature May 30, between himself and James Eetoolook, vice president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

In that document, Eetoolook agreed with Okalik’s view that “…the government has a clear obligation under Article 32 [of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement]… to hold formal and meaningful consultations with Inuit prior to taking any decision that will have a significant impact on our society.”

But Peterson said he was confused over the “vague” document, noting that NTI was a member of the liquor task force that wrote the 2012 report.

“They went around for 27 months as a member of the task force, consulted all the communities of Nunavut,” Peterson said.

But Okalik again demanded that more consultation be done, as well as establishing a treatment centre beforehand.

“We don’t have a treatment centre in Nunavut, even before we even opened a liquor store… perhaps hear from the public first, consult with people first before we open a beer and wine store,” Okalik said.

Okalik’s own constituency in Iqaluit voted overwhelmingly in favor of opening a beer and wine store last April.

But the MLA’s remark triggered a veiled critique from Peterson on Okalik’s own administration as premier — a role he served from the creation of Nunavut in 1999 until 2008.

“[Okalik] himself was at a conference in Montreal in September 2002, where he promised a limited detox centre be opened, so that’s never happened,” Peterson remarked.

“The purpose of the beer and wine store is to try and offer low cost beer and wine products, low content alcohol, that would disrupt bootleggers and hopefully reduce the impact of binge drinking in these communities.”

While Peterson confirmed that the beer and wine store would be a three-year pilot project, the government has yet to set a date for when that project will begin.

“As I recall the GN has not actually made an announcement about a beer and wine store,” Peterson said.

An earlier version of this story stated that Okalik, after finishing his questions, went and sat directly behind Taptuna for a few minutes before leaving the room. Okalik explained, during his member’s statement June 3 in the legislature, that he was simply leaving the floor temporarily but sat down because someone else started speaking.

It is standard procedure, and a sign of respect, to sit down when someone in the house is asking a question. Nunatsiaq News was not aware of this procedure and apologizes for the misunderstanding.