Iqaluit brew-op proposal faces little opposition

Here’s a sketch showing the type of building that the Nunavut Brewing Company wants to create for its local Iqaluit brewery. (FILE PHOTO)

Sheldon Nimchuk, one of the investors behind the Nunavut Brewing Company. (FILE PHOTO)

A public hearing at the cadet hall on a proposal to build a brewery in Iqaluit attracted only about 15 people. (FILE PHOTO)

No one expressed opposition to a proposal for a local brewery in Iqaluit at a public hearing Sept. 9 that attracted only about 15 people.

The Nunavut Liquor Licensing Board held the hearing at the Cadet Hall in Iqaluit, a room designed for many times that number of people so that representatives from the Nunavut Brewing Co. could make their case and residents state their views.

Three members of the public, including Iqaluit city councilor Terry Dobbin, voiced support for approval of the brewery.

“We ship in hundreds of thousands of dollars of beer every year. They [Nunavut Brewing Co.] just want a piece of that pie,” said Dobbin to the board.

“Southern imports bring nothing back to Nunavut.”

No one offered a dissenting opinion.

“This was the easiest public hearing I’ve been involved in,” said David Wilman, chair of the Nunavut Liquor Licensing Board, at the conclusion of the brief, one-hour hearing.

The board will discuss the brewery’s proposal in private Sept. 10 and expects to notify the brewery and the public of their decision the same day.

In his opening presentation, Sheldon Nimchuk, one of the main investors in the Nunavut Brewing Company, laid out an ambitious plan.

Nimchuk said he expects the approximately $3-million brewery operation to contribute $500,000 to $700,000 to the local economy annually.

“This is about taking Nunavut forward,” said Nimchuk, who expects the operation will create six full-time and several part-time jobs in Iqaluit.

Nimchuk cites the success of other territorial breweries, specifically the Yukon Brewery Co., as an example of the mutual advantages a local brewery and its community can share.

“Today, with its beginnings in 1997, the Yukon Brewery has captured approximately 65 per cent of the market in the Yukon,” Nimchuk said. “The community sees it as their beer.”

Several hurdles must still be overcome by the brewery should the board sign off on the venture.

Location, zoning, health and building code approval will need to be pursued next by the investors.

“It’s just the natural process of doing anything, you need to abide by those and we don’t plan on chipping corners in that regard,” Nimchuk said.

They will also need to explore any possible resistance from the public and Inuit organizations to the use of water from Sylvia Grinnell River to brew their beer.

“This is the first step, we haven’t reached out to any of those authorities yet. We thought it would be too presumptuous to do that until we have received the permit to move forward with the brewery initiative,” Nimchuk said.

The brewery admits however, from a marketing perspective, that being able to say the beer is brewed from the region’s natural source of water is advantageous.

The board hearing is the most recent in a series of public presentations the investors have made to achieve their goal of a Nunavut brewery.

In June, the brewery pitched their plan to Iqaluit city council and won approval by a narrow margin.

A smaller brewery operation, headed by Liberal candidate Hunter Tootoo, was also seeking approval from the board but has since quietly dropped out of that endeavor.

That group chose not to attend the board hearing Sept. 9.